Council Drops Action Against Chelmsford Parents

8 September 2014, 12:52 | Updated: 8 September 2014, 12:54

Legal action against two parents from Chelmsford who took their child out of school without permission has been dropped, a council has said.

James and Dana Haymore declined to pay Essex County Council a #120 fine for taking their son Toby to a family memorial service.

They had denied failing to ensure a child attended school regularly and were due to stand trial at Colchester Magistrates' Court in November.

It was thought the trial would be the first test of laws introduced last September which mean anyone who takes their children out of classes without permission can be fined.

Speaking soon after being summonsed to court, Mr Haymore, a banker with JP Morgan, told the Sunday Times: "There's a question here as to whether Michael Gove's judgement about when all children should always take holidays is better than a family's judgement. ''

The couple were expected to argue that the decision breached the European Convention of Human Rights Article 8, because it affects their right to a family life.

The prosecution came after they took the 11-year-old out of Chancellor Park Primary School in Chelmsford between December 16 and 20 and on January 7 for a memorial service for Mrs Haymore's grandfather in the US.

Essex County Council announced on Monday the prosecution had been discontinued after the family returned to live in America.

Ray Gooding, cabinet member for education at the authority, said: "We have had to take a decision based on the public interest of pursuing a case where the family have emigrated and are no longer being educated in an Essex school.

"This is an unusual situation but we have chosen to be pragmatic and accept that continuing with the prosecution serves little purpose and will cost the council money.

"We take unauthorised absence very seriously and support the principle of the Government's strengthening of the rules in September 2013, which meant that term-time absence had to be authorised by head teachers and only in exceptional circumstances.

"It is extremely important to remember that in this case, the school followed the policy to the letter.''

A spokesman for the school said there would be no change to its policy on non-attendance.

A statement added: "Chancellor Park Primary takes school attendance very seriously and following Government guidance only authorises term time holidays in exceptional circumstances.

"We adhered to the law in this case, passing to the local authority to progress the fines.

"The matter of dropping the legal case against Mr and Mrs Haymore is not one for the school and will not result in any change to our attendance policies.''