The county council is proposing to simplify and improve the admission arrangements for secondary schools in Hertfordshire which do not determine their own admission rules.

There are only 14 secondary community schools which have their admission arrangements set by Hertfordshire County Council, although a number of foundation schools and academies choose to use the same set of rules.

It is proposed to remove rule six which relates to children who live outside the priority area for a particular school, but for whom "it is the nearest coeducational, non-faith, partially selective maintained school or academy".

Children living outside a school’s priority area will simply be prioritised on the basis of home-school distance which will also improve clarity and transparency for parents.

Public consultation on these proposals will take place for eight weeks between January 2 and February 28, 2014.

For full details, and to respond to the consultation, go to www.hertsdirect.org/admissions2015.