ANTI-grammar school campaigners in Kent and Medway have come under fire for renewing their efforts to trigger a parental ballot on selection.

The campaign group STEP Stop The Eleven Plus has formally moved to kick start the process of petitioning to scrap the 11-plus and Kent's 33 grammar schools, as it did unsuccessfully last year.

But the move has led to a row. Grammar school supporters say it is "a pointless charade" since anti-selection campaigners have no intention or hope of persuading people to vote.

STEP has exploited the Government legislation allowing it to begin the process with a petition signed by just 10 parents.

The result is that every school in Kent and Medway, and every other selective education authority, will now have to draw up lists of parents who would be eligible to vote in any referendum.

The information is crucial because, in theory, it would determine the number of signatures campaigners would need for a vote.

While the Government pays schools to compile lists, the money comes from the public purse. An average secondary school with about 1,000 pupils gets about £500.

Earlier this year, education officials were forced to admit the Department for Education and Skills had spent £1.1million on preparatory work for ballots in Kent and elsewhere which had failed to happen.

Support Kent Schools, a group dedicated to maintaining selection, said ministers ought to consider financial penalties for those who sought to trigger ballots.

Chairman Eric Hammond said: "Perhaps the Government should consider surcharging those individuals who have neither the intention of embarking on a campaign nor indeed any hope of achieving a very modest threshold which would prompt a vote."

Schools were engaged in a "futile and time-wasting exercise," he added.

STEP remained unrepentant. It says triggering the ballot process is the best way of highlighting the absurdity of the regulations.

Spokesman Martin Frey said the Government's legislation on ballots was framed in a way to preserve grammars and was unworkable.

"Support Kent Schools should join forces with us to get rid of an appalling piece of legislation," he added.