A mother who is angry that Oxfordshire County Council has sent her daughter to a school miles out of her home town is keeping the girl at home until a new school can be found for her.

Emma Soden, 23, wanted her daughter Lucia, four, to go to St John's School in Wallingford - a school she can see from her back garden in Brookmead Drive.

But she applied a week too late and the council said the girl must go to Cholsey Primary School instead.

But Mrs Soden cannot drive and has no way of getting her to school except by taxi. Buses are out of the question because the timings mean long delays, she said.

Mrs Soden said: "I was promised transport by the council to get Lucia to Cholsey, but then they backed out. Now I have no way of getting her there and back while still having my other daughter, Josie, two, at pre-school in Wallingford.

"I know I was a week late and I bitterly regret it, but sending Lucia to Cholsey is not the answer. I was never offered another school in Wallingford.

"I'm desperately trying to get her into another Wallingford school - it's the only way we can manage. I don't want to keep her out of school but I have no choice."

Mrs Soden, whose parents Jacqui and Brian Howard run the Dolphin pub in Wallingford, said: "My family are busy people and simply cannot take over the school run."

Council spokesman for children, young people and families, John Mitchell, said: "We do our best to ensure that children are allocated to their parents' first choice school. In the academic year just started, the overwhelming majority of parents - 96 per cent - got their first preference.

"Admissions to schools are subject to published and clear processes and in this instance the parents applied after the closing date for primary school allocations.

"All the places at the parents' first and second choice of school had already been filled.

"A place was offered at the next closest school with available places and that was Cholsey.

"Transport is only provided for children who have reached the statutory school age of five and the council has offered free transport from January 2007."