Devon County Council to reimburse Tavistock ski parents

Devon County Council is to step in to reimburse Tavistock families

following a cancelled ski trip.

The authority announced today that it would enable

Tavistock College to refund the families pending any legal action and

negotiations with insurers.

The half-term trip was cancelled when the tour

company could not guarantee that the accommodation that had been booked was

available.

Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools

and Skills, Christine Channon, said:"The report I have asked for into the

cancellation of the ski trip is still being finalised. 

“However, we recognise that students and their

families are out of pocket through no fault of their own. 

“We are able to make an immediate payment to the

college to cover the students' refunds and I believe this is the right course

of action to take. 

“We will then work with the college to recover

this money in due course." 

Tavistock College principal Helen Salmon said: “We

have been working closely with Devon County Council following this very

unfortunate and difficult event.

“The college will be carefully reviewing its own

procedures and we are working with the county council on its investigation.

“However the most paramount need was to ensure

that our families were reimbursed as soon as possible and, with Devon County

Council’s cooperation and support from our local county councillors, we have

been able to achieve that.”

Tavistock county councillor Debo Sellis said: “My

colleague Philip Sanders and I have been working with the college and Devon

County Council to try to reach a swift resolution to this problem.

“Many families were left out of pocket and a lot

of students had been saving for a long time to have this special trip.

“The most important thing for them was to get

their money back as soon as possible and the county council’s swift action

means they will not have to wait for this to be dealt with by the insurers and

possibly in the courts.”

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Why would Devon County Council want to do this so quickly? Are they this generous normally with Tax Payer's money, acting on part fact, unable to wait for the finalisation of a report? Are they trying to avoid legal action against themselves by the 'ski parents' perhaps. Imagine if the trip had taken place, the 'ski parents' would have been in the same position as they were anyway. It is of course easy to play loose with public money. After all someone else earned it.