An angry Bexleyheath mother has spoken of her disgust after her three-year-old daughter was denied a place at a Bexley nursery - yet her twin sister's application was accepted.

Selma Abbey, aged 32 of Martens Avenue in Bexley applied for two places at Hurst Primary School on Dorchester Avenue for twins, Leya and Ella in January because girl's five-year-old sister, Ayla, already attends the school.

But on May 17 Mrs Abbey received a letter from Bexley Council informing her that Ella's application had been unsuccessful as the family's home was too far away from the school.

The mother-of-three has since been told that although the council have made a mistake there is nothing that can be done to secure Ella a place at the nursery.

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She said: "Apparently the current issue is staff ratios. There's no appeal system so the only thing I'm clinging on to now is the hope that another family reject their offer.

"Even though none of this is the school's fault, they'll have to clean up this mess - they've made calls to the council on my behalf without me even asking them to, and they've expressed their outrage which was kind.

"I'm now wondering if the only way out is to reject Leya's place and write a late application to a separate school, which I absolutely do not want to do.

"I can't physically be in two places at once during school run time."

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The twins currently attend Tweenies pre-school at Bexleyheath which starts at 9.15am, allowing Mrs Abbey, who works as beauty therapist, to drop off Ayla at school beforehand.

A spokesman for Bexley Council said: ""We are very sorry for the distress that this mistake has caused.

"This year we received more than 1,694 nursery applications and 3,078 primary applications.

"Unfortunately the volume of these applications can sometimes mean that an error occurs."