I HAVE just been fined for my daughter not attending school for a week while broadening her experiences on a family skiing holiday.

Call me sceptical, but will this money actually improve the education system?

I am under the impression that every county can decide the severity of the implementation of the penalty notices and that Kent County Council has adopted a stricter approach.

While I can understand the need for this sort of penalty system to counter poor school attendance, I find it hard to believe any benefit can be had for hiding behind these guidelines and just following them to the letter, regardless of the actual attendance records for the children they are supposed to protect.

While not being a decision that is taken lightly, we have wider responsibilities to our daughter's welfare and development and also have to consider the effects of her not going on holiday with the rest of the family, where timing is out of our control.

Although we are committed to her education, and regardless of the fact that she has an otherwise excellent level of attendance, we now find ourselves branded as negligent in her schooling and our responsibilities as parents, with a £50 fine each leading to court appearance if not paid.

After taking legal advice, we paid the fines in order to stop them from escalating to £100 each, but sent a letter claiming them to have been incorrectly issued and asking for the money to be returned.

In a letter of reply from the headmaster of my daughter's school, the blame is squarely shifted to the school governors and Governmental policy. This being regardless of the fact that he started the process and admits in this same letter that our daughter "does have a very good attendance record".

Needless to say our request was denied but we then received two more invoices demanding payments of £100 each. On querying these we were told that this often happened and to just ignore them as they were probably issued in error – fine advice, as the alternative would be a court appearance.

It appears to be everyone else's decision, or a computer error, that these penalty notices were issued – and this from the people in charge of our children's education!

Do any other parents or, indeed, educational departments have any similar stories to share?

Mr and Mrs Baxter

Birling Drive

Tunbridge Wells

Buses and our footprint

ON TAKING my son to Sir Henry Fermor School on Tuesday I encountered a traffic jam that ran all the way back to the police station on Crowborough Hill.

I assumed this was roadworks, or an accident. Imagine my surprise to get to the school to find the traffic jam was caused by Arriva parking a bus in the stop opposite the school.

I was told it arrived at 8.35am and I watched it drive off at 9.05am.

All the parents are used to Arriva blocking the bus stop in the layby – to prevent parents using it to drop off children. But to park on the road and completely block the lane for 30 minutes is insane.

The danger to children trying to get to Fermor and Beacon, who had to cross between rows of jammed cars, is unforgiveable.

How can Arriva afford to pay for a bus and driver to sit idle for this length of time?

What about the carbon footprint of these buses parking with the engine running for 30 minutes?

Andrew Fry

Crowborough

THE OTHER day I cycled from Tonbridge to Tunbridge Wells between 8.30 and 9am in good weather conditions. I was passed by two empty buses and the Southborough traffic queue stretched back nearly to Bidborough Ridge.

As I reached Tunbridge Wells I caught up with a third empty bus which had not passed me – proving that I got there before everyone else.

Meanwhile, the Arctic ice cap is melting fast and the Earth's resources of oil will run out in the not too distant future.

So what are the drivers, and bus companies going to do about it?

Don't blame the Government for a situation you have helped to create!

But one question for the local councils – is there any chance of Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge and Malling getting together to create a safe, direct cycle route between the two towns?

Diane Farquhar

Woodfield Road

Tonbridge

Wheelchairs on premises

PAT ELLIOTT'S statement (Letters, May 15) suggesting that Hawkhurst Cottage Hospital should be capable of supplying wheelchairs, is misleading.

As a longstanding driver for Cranbrook Voluntary Hospital and Doctor's Car Service I am completely unaware of any hospital prepared to loan a wheelchair to anyone for use, other than on its premises, and certainly not one which needs to be taken off its site.

Kent and Sussex Hospital has a good number of wheelchairs which are usually situated at the entrance to A&E or the nearby serious emergency unit or at the entrance to the outpatients department.

If that proves unsuccessful then a member of hospital staff will immediately call for a porter to assist.

However, presumably because of their previous misuse and non-return to their original position, it has now become necessary for the hospital to charge £1 for their use, which is recoverable on return, rather like trolleys at the Co-op in Cranbrook.

In my experience of collecting and returning patients from and to their homes, it is sometimes difficult, but never impossible, in assisting them into a car.

On arrival at the hospital it is seldom difficult to find the means to assist the patient to reach the department in which they have an appointment.

The service covers all the immediate hospital locations and occasionally some as far away as Ashford, Canterbury, East Grinstead and occasionally London.

It is therefore, with respect, unreasonable to imply that Hawkhurst Cottage Hospital should be expected to avail the general public of such a facility when they do a more than satisfactory job in every other respect.

In conclusion may I take this opportunity to say that the Cranbrook Voluntary Hospital Car Service is continually looking for suitable drivers and that if any kind person feels they may be able to assist occasionally they should contact Avril on 01580 713221 who currently administers the scheme. I am sure she will be pleased to hear from you.

Don Rogers

Goddards Close

Cranbrook