Just wanted to know if any other areas are the same. Here in the London Borough of Richmond, the entitlement to a FREE 15 hours of pre-school education is such that unless you live close enough (or follow the right religion) to get into one of the approx 50% of primary schools that have a nursery class, you cannot find a free place in any other pre-school, so have to pay top-up fees for every hour your child attends. So if I wanted to send my daughter to her pre-school (one of the cheapest I could find locally) for 15 hours a week I would still be paying over £400 a term. Apparently there is between one and three free places offered at each pre-school, but these are not advertised and have no eligibility criteria so how the pre-schools allocate I do not know.
Also, this information often comes as a complete surprise to many first-time parents so if you know anyone who has a toddler and lives in this area, please warn them.