PRIMARY schools are rejecting kids living barely a minute away as up to 14 pupils fight it out for each place, a report claims.

In some cases, children living on the same street as a school have been knocked back.

One primary in Somerset was in such demand that its catchment area was just 93 metres.

And 50 per cent of secondaries are oversubscribed, a rise of three per cent in three years.

The audit follows a Local Government Association warning that the country faces an “emergency” over secondary school places due to a rise in the birth rate.

It claims that in six years over half of English councils may struggle to meet demand, the Daily Mail reports. But Schools Minister Nick Gibb insisted that by 2020 there will be a million more school places than in 2010.

He said that almost 94 per cent of secondary school applicants got one of their top three choices.

And he said £23billion is being invested to create new schools and improve conditions of older ones.