WRONG numbers have been plaguing staff at a Trowbridge primary school but a BT operator's solution to the problem left them fuming.

Staff at the 27-year-old Paxcroft Primary School were livid when an operator asked them to change the school's name to bring an end to a long-running case of mistaken identity.

Confusion began with the opening of the Mead Primary School on the nearby Paxcroft Mead estate in October 2001.

Since then staff at Paxcroft School have fielded hundreds of wrong calls and redirected scores of baffled deliverymen mistakenly believing they were at Trowbridge's newest primary school.

On the verge of reaching for the phone plug, staff at Paxcroft School contacted BT to flag up the problem. School administration officer Denise Bates said she went potty when told by an operator the solution was to change the school's name.

She said: "A woman operator rang back and asked us to change our name to the Paxcroft Mead Primary School.

"I went berserk we have been here for 27 years.

"The operator completely misunderstood the situation.

"I thought how dare they ask us to change the name.

"It causes a lot of confusion for all of us. It has been an on-going problem for a long time now.

"I would get parents ringing me up asking for places for their children and we would be starting off the process before realising they were on about the other school.

"When the Mead School was built we had deliveries of pipe work and building materials. Everyone was getting it wrong. The problem is a lot of people are calling the Mead School the Paxcroft Mead School because of the estate name."

Governors named the Mead School after the new estate in Hilperton but the move has led to countless problems.

BT spokesman Justin Mann said it was "not normal practice" to ask a school to change its name and the company records did not record any similar request being made.

He said: "We are taking action on this situation.

"We are making arrangements to place a note against the customer's records which will tell an operator to check the caller has got the right school.

"There are no problems with our records, if we are asked for the correct school the caller will get the correct number."