Despite accusations that it "deprives" Catholic pupils in neighbouring areas, Wimbledon College has had its admissions policy upheld.

Wandsworth Council had submitted three separate complaints about Wimbledon College to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, but on Monday the adjudicator sided with the college on one of the objections.

Currently the voluntary-aided school - which "exists primarily to provide Jesuit education for children of the Catholic community" - when oversubscribed, will give preference to boys from one of seven schools, in the Archdiocese of Southwark and the Deanery of Merton, which have a historic link to the college.

Those feeder schools are Sacred Heart, in New Malden, St John Fisher's and St Teresa's, both in Morden, St Peter and Paul's and St Thomas of Canterbury's, both in Mitcham, plus St Mary's and Donhead, both in Wimbledon.

But parents of pupils at Catholic primary schools in Wandsworth, unable to get their children into Wimbledon College, felt the system was unfair and urged the council to object on their behalf.

The schools affected include Roehampton's Sacred Heart, Putney's Our Lady Queen of Heaven and Tooting's St Boniface.

The adjudicator Dr Elizabeth Passmore agreed with the council that historic links between schools are "not sufficiently objective" and "no longer appropriate" to decide admission arrangements, but stopped short of removing them.

A Wandsworth Council spokesman said: "We are disappointed at the outcome as we cannot see what the list of named schools achieves, except to deprive pupils from Catholic schools in Wandsworth. The adjudicator seems to agree but has not made a ruling."

Decisions are expected soon on the other two objections, the first being the perception by Wandsworth Council that the college does not consider boys unless they name the school as their first choice.

The second complaint is that the college states preference will be given to boys "who have made Wimbledon College their first or second preference, provided that the other school named first or second is also a Catholic school".

The council believes this policy is unfair and works against efforts to give parents more choice as to what school they send their children to.

Wimbledon College, which will admit 196 boys in September, was unavailable for comment.