The Office of the Schools Adjudicator is expecting to make a decision within the month on the objections to the admission arrangements approved by the last government.

The Conservatives allowed comprehensive schools to select up to 15% of pupils on ability without Government permission.

The Audit Commission said this policy contributed to an admissions "logjam", and critics say it has made it virtually impossible for many pupils to find places in local schools.

Campaigners step up fight

Before the last election, the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, pledged that a Labour government would make sure there was "no more selection" in school admission arrangements.

In legislation last year, he published a new code of practice on admissions and created the Office of Schools Adjudicator to enforce it.

It allows parents and LEAs to object to existing arrangements at individual schools, including partial selection.

The results of the adjudications will come as campaigners against selection step up their fight against it.

In September, parents in up to five LEA areas are expected to launch petitions to abolish local grammar schools.

Effect on other schools

If more than 20% of parents eligible to vote in ballots support the petitions, ballots will be held early next year.

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator has confirmed that it is considering objections to partial selection at 43 schools in eight LEAS - Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Surrey and Wandsworth.

It is also considering objections to other admission arrangements for one school in Derbyshire, one in Lancashire, and all schools in Torbay.

The code of practice directs adjudicators to uphold objections "where local pupils who could otherwise expect to be admitted to a school are in effect being denied admission."

Objections 'flooding in'

It directs them to consider whether other local schools were struggling "as a result of partially selective schools creaming off the brightest pupils", and whether other children were having to "travel an unreasonable distance to school because of the pressure on local school places".

Lead Adjudicator Sir Peter Newsam, former education office with the Inner London Education Authority, said other objections were "still flooding in".

They would have to be studied carefully to determine whether they fell within the scope of the code, he said.

Margaret Tulloch, spokeswoman for the Campaign for State Education, which is supporting objections to selection, said: "What selection means is that parents can't get their children into local schools."