Kent County Council says it will do all it can to create new grammar school places in west Kent after more than 1,000 people signed a petition urging it to set up a new school.

Education chiefs at the authority are facing calls from parents in Sevenoaks to address a shortage of places that means as many as 1,100 children have to travel out of the area to schools in other parts of the county.

A petition to the council has now been signed by 1,400 people - meaning KCC will have to respond.

David Cameron has ruled out the creation of new grammar schools, but new admissions rules do permit popular over-subscribed schools to expand to meet demand.

KCC says it will examine whether or not it can create a satellite school affiliated to one or more existing grammar schools in other areas. Talks have already taken place about the idea.

Sarah Shilling, from Chipstead Park in Sevenoaks, who launched the e-petition, thinks the idea could work.

She said: "They’ll be an established grammar school, they’ll know what they’re doing and they will be able to run it, where as if you’ve got a new grammar school someone’s got to set that up which is difficult."

Kent has the largest number of grammar schools of any part of the country and many of the county’s Conservative MPs believe the government should support an expansion of the selective system.

Sevenoaks is the only part of the county that does not have its own grammar school.

Cllr Mike Whiting (Con), the cabinet member for education at KCC, said the council would look carefully at what could be done but stressed there were a number of issues to consider.

"As the law stands, we cannot build a new grammar school. But the law does allow us to expand the intake of existing successful schools, which does open the door to more grammar school places across the area.

"Figures I’ve seen suggest there are about 1,100 children in Sevenoaks attending selective schools in Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells - that is a lot of children travelling some distance to get to school."

Derry Wiltshire, head teacher of Amherst Junior School, in Sevenoaks, said many of his students’ parents are concerned about travelling.

"It’s a huge expense" he added, "and it means after school it’s very difficult for them to stay on for extra-curricular activities and school games and things and if they miss their school bus they have to make an alternative arrangement."

According to Cllr Whiting, other issues the council needed to consider included the possible impact on other schools, as well as whether there would be any government funding to help build a satellite school.

It is also understood that the legislation means any new satellite school would have to have the same ethos as its sponsoring school - raising the issue of whether it would have to be single sex.

There have been a number of cases over recent years of Sevenoaks children being offered grammar places as far afield as Folkestone - more than 50 miles away.

Margaret Tulloch, from Comprehensive Future, said: "What we would like to see is areas like Kent who still have selection, to end selection and that would at a stroke reduce the stress on 11-year-olds."