We have received an email today (main extract below) from Warwickshire CC withdrawing our offer (which was offered and subsequently accepted by me on 1st March)

Unfortunately, Warwickshire County Council have made this offer in error and I am afraid that the place must now be withdrawn from your child. This is due to children not being offered places in the initial round of offers on 1 March who should have been given a place due to them being of a higher criteria than your child.

A letter explaining full details of this situation will be posted out to you tomorrow (Thursday 15 March) and will also go on to further advise on why the offer has been withdrawn and what you can do next in these circumstances.

I appreciate that this news will be extremely disappointing for you and your child, and I would like to offer my most sincere apologies that this error has occurred.

Not very helpful and very agonising. DD scored 250+ and I was relatively confident she would be offered off of waiting list on second round. She was offered on 1 March which I was surprised about, but as she scored so highly didn't think too much about it. Two weeks later and it's been taken away. It is absolutely gutting. I only saw the email after 5pm (it was sent just before 4.30pm) and the admissions office is now closed. Do I have grounds for appeal even though we are out of area?

C16. If the parental application was not fraudulent, can a LA withdraw a place it has offered in error?
The law is not entirely clear here, but the length of time that passes before the place is withdrawn seems to be significant.

The following precedents may be of interest (but come without guarantees!):

R v Beatrix Potter School (1997)

The head offered a place in error, and the LA withdrew it the same day. Parents appealed to the High Court on grounds of ‘legitimate expectation’ of a place. High Court refused the appeal (and the place) as the offer was withdrawn the same day.

Ombudsman complaint 99/C/1876

Head offered five places. LEA withdrew them after three days.
Ombudsman decided in this case the delay was too long, and amounted to maladminstration. Places confirmed.

However, once a child has started at a school, the Admissions Code (2014) now says:

2.13 A school must not withdraw a place once a child has started at the school, except where that place was fraudulently obtained. In deciding whether to withdraw the place, the length of time that the child has been at the school must be taken into account. For example, it might be considered appropriate to withdraw the place if the child has been at theschool for less than one term.