A headteacher who successfully challenged claims that his school discriminates against children from nearby estates is accusing Ealing Council of incompetence over its handling of the case.

A High Court judge this week quashed a ruling by the Schools Adjudicator that Drayton Manor School in Hanwell has been promoting "social segregation" by routinely denying places to pupils who have another school nearer.

Now headteacher Sir Pritpal Singh has vowed to visit the affected Cuckoo, Copley Close and High Lane estates to reassure parents their children are welcome at the high-achieving school.

Concerns were first raised last November by nearby Brentside High School and were backed by Ealing Council, which referred the complaint to the watchdog.

A deadline for all online admissions applications had to be extended at the last minute, to November 12, following the adjudicator's initial ruling last week.

But Judge Stewart QC found the adjudicator had failed to take into account a "central plank" of the school's case, that other children would be equally disadvantaged if the school was forced to change its policy.

Sir Pritpal said: "I am very angry that we were forced to the High Court to get sense to prevail. The waste of public time and money is an absolute disgrace.

"The allegations by Ealing Council and Brentside that we encouraged social segregation were an outrageous slur on our reputation.

"My concern has been for children applying to secondary school in Ealing. They have had to wait because the adjudicator has done a really shoddy job, and because of the incompetence of the council and Brentside in bringing the allegations in the first place."

Sir Pritpal said the case was not discussed at an admissions panel in January, that the school was not made aware of the complaints until March, and that his attempts to resolve the matter informally had been ignored.

The council is now writing to all parents in the borough to let them know the admissions arrangements for next year are unchanged.

A spokeswoman said: "Ealing Council's action in referring our and Brentside High's concerns about Drayton Manor's admission policy to the adjudicator was entirely proper and the only course of action open to us.

"We have a legal duty to refer objections about admission criteria that may be unfair.

"The accusation that we didn't follow the correct process is highly inaccurate and we first raised our concerns in late 2007. We did not take this case to the January admissions panel as we are obliged to try to resolve differences informally before making an official referral.

"Throughout this process our priority has been to protect the interests of all parents as they make this important decision for their children."

Anyone concerned about their child's application should call the council on 020 8825 5522, or visit www.ealing.gov.uk