Hertfordshire County Council is proposing to simplify the admission arrangements for the secondary schools in Hertfordshire which do not set their own admission rules.

There are 14 secondary 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 prioritising children who live outside the priority area for a particular school on the basis that it is “the nearest co-educational, non-faith, partially selective maintained school or academy” for them.

Children living outside a school’s priority area will instead be prioritised solely on the basis of the distance between their home and the school, if the change is approved.

Among the schools affected are Barclay, Barnwell, Marriotts and Nobel in Stevenage, as well as Fearnhill and Highfield in Letchworth GC and The Priory in Hitchin.

A public consultation on the proposal began last week and will run until February 28.

Chris Hayward, cabinet member for education at the county council, said: “We would welcome the views of parents on these proposals, which aim to ensure we continue to have clear and fair admission arrangements.

“Parents who wish to comment on the admission arrangements for schools which set their own rules can do so through the governing bodies of those schools. The arrangements for all these schools are available at www.hertsdirect.org/ownadmissions 2015”