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Friday 26th October 2018 Issue No.12
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Jon Platt’s damning half-term report after council prosecutions
School holiday horrors EXCLUSIVE by Joe Burn
Jon Platt: serious concerns over prosecutions.
Island businessman Jon Platt, the champion for parents seeking flexible holiday arrangements with schools, has sent a halfterm rocket to the Isle of Wight Council. Last week no fewer than six prosecutions of parents were heard at Newport Magistrates’ Court and three were directly linked to pupils being removed from school during term time to go on holiday. Each parent was ordered to pay between £160 and £811 in costs. But Mr Platt, who took his own fight against a similar prosecution to the Supreme Court last year - ending in his being found guilty, given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £2,000 - said the council’s continued stringent action against parents was both wrong and unjustified in terms of educational performance. Speaking exclusively to the IW Observer, Mr Platt gave a coruscating critique of council policy. He declared: “I made a Freedom of Information request to the IW Council
based on the latest academic year and it revealed 48 prosecutions of parents, costing those parents more than £6,170 in costs. They are the strictest council in the country in prosecuting truancy penalty notices (TPNs). “And I wanted to know how much it costs to run the Education and Inclusion department that brings those prosecutions. The answer? It is £246,056. “The council tells me that this department does other things and that these
‘All of my children are now at Ryde School and on holiday in Cuba’ Continued
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prosecutions are a small part of their work. But that near-£250,000 cost does not include processing the payments or the legal services team’s costs.” And Mr Platt, whose ex-wife had taken their three children on a termtime holiday to Cuba at the time of the interview, said the council could not justify its policy because strictly enforcing termtime attendance did not result in better educational achievements. “All these prosecutions
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Red Funnel pledge on ferry safety Red Funnel has promised its passengers they can “absolutely” have faith in the safety of its crossSolent ferry service after Red Falcon ran aground in fog last Sunday off Cowes. The ferry was found to be undamaged after being refloated and inspected although it struck several yachts moored off Cowes and one, Greylag, was sunk but later recovered. The ferry later returned to service as a Red Funnel internal investigation was launched. Another Red Funnel ferry was also in collision with a motor yacht in September. Responding to questions from the IW Observer, Red Funnel chief executive officer Fran Collins sought to reassure passengers. She said the company was “treating this incident with the highest importance”. Asked if passengers could have faith in safety on board the company’s craft, she said: “Absolutely, the safety and well-being of our passengers, crew and all other marine users takes precedence over anything else. “As part of our continuing commitment to safety, we operate a proactive, awardwinning safety management system that is subject to continuous improvement and is audited both internally, and by external regulators.” And she stressed Red Funnel operated more than 30,000 sailings a year safely in and out of Cowes so “whilst the recent issues are concerning, they should be taken in context”.
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