SACRE Bleu! Today 30 York youngsters were supposed to be excitedly waking up in the French capital of Paris for the first day of a school trip - instead a passport blunder left them stranded and fed-up in Dover.

The pupils, from York's Burnholme Community College, were planning to do their bit to help find missing tot Madeleine McCann by displaying a Find Madeleine poster on their rucksacks.

The group, who are visiting France on a £400-per-pupil five-day language visit, wanted to join in the campaign to help find the four-year-old.

Parents started to receive worried phone calls from their children yesterday saying they were stranded in Dover, unable to board the ferry because of difficulties at passport control. The delays then got so bad that the children had to stay overnight at the port while the farce was sorted out.

Head teacher Tony Gavin said the problem was now resolved.

A Passport to nowhere

ANGRY parents have hit out after a passport blunder meant their children were stranded at Dover on a school trip to France.

The pupils, from Burnholme Community College, in York, were doing their bit to help find missing tot Madeleine McCann by displaying a Find Madeleine poster on their rucksacks.

The Press previously reported that the group of 30 youngsters, who are visiting France on a five-day language visit, wanted to join in the campaign to help find the four-year-old.

Parents waved their children off on their coach trip to Paris at 2.45am yesterday.

But many parents started to receive worried phone calls from their children at around 11am saying they were stranded in Dover, unable to board the ferry because of difficulties at passport control.

One parent, who wanted to remain anonymous and had a 15-year-old daughter on the bus, said: "They were told they couldn't leave the country and the school didn't even think to call us to let us know.

"The first I knew was when my daughter phoned me at work on her mobile phone to say I needed to take her passport to school.

"This is the first time she's been abroad and we've paid £400 for this trip.

"A lot of parents, like me, are incredibly angry with the school and the way they have handled this.

"I had to take time out of work to take my passport into school and no one was even there to greet me and let me know what was going on - and I wasn't the only one.

"I'd like to know who's going to foot the bill for the overnight hotel accommodation."

Herefordshire-based travel company PGL said the group had turned up in Dover without the necessary group passport.

But the school's head teacher, Tony Gavin, has said one of the individual children's passports on a group passport was out of date. Mr Gavin said the problem had been resolved, the itinerary had been extended and no parent would have to pay for the overnight stay.

Mr Gavin said: "There is not a problem here. The children will be staying in a hotel in Dover and the company will pay for that. Of course, the parents won't have to pay for it."

PGL's corporate affairs director, Martin Hudson, said: "The responsibility for getting group passports lies with the leading teacher on the trip. What seems to have happened here is they turned up down at Dover without a group passport.

"We have arranged overnight accommodation for the children, but it's not a cost we will incur because it wasn't our mix-up."

A City of York Council spokesperson said: "We have been informed by staff at the school that there was an unfortunate delay when the party arrived at immigration control in Dover as a result of one member of the group's passports being out of date.

"Although this issue was resolved, the delay meant that the bus was unable to continue its journey at that point as the driver would have been on the road for longer than he is legally allowed to be. Therefore, the decision was taken to put the children up in a hotel in Dover overnight, although their itinerary in France has been enhanced to make sure they don't miss out on anything as a result of this."