End of Welwyn Garden City schoolboy tax-i-ing problem
A NIGHTMARE has had a happy ending for one WGC family after the Welwyn & Hatfield Times came to the rescue! We were contacted by an angry Billy Markham to say Hertfordshire
A NIGHTMARE has had a happy ending for one WGC family after the Welwyn & Hatfield Times came to the rescue!
We were contacted by an angry Billy Markham to say Hertfordshire County Council had "out of the blue" stopped funding his son's college travel costs.
Daniel, 15, is actually a pupil at Monk's Walk School but having found school life difficult his teachers decided to send him on a two-year practical learning course at Hertford Regional College in Ware.
For the first year all taxi fares - �100 a week - were paid for by the council.
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But on his way to start his first day back at college after the holidays- on September 9 - Daniel was informed by the driver that the council had stopped funding his travel costs.
Dad Billy, of Rowans, was worried he and wife Nikki, 35, could not afford the journeys.
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The 38-year-old, who has four other children, said: "If they would have told me beforehand maybe we could have got it sorted.
"There is no way we could get him to college.
"It's an absolute nightmare."
The next day after the Welwyn & Hatfield Times made some enquiries the county council decided to reinstate Daniel's travel costs for the remainder of his two-year course.
Billy said: "It's fantastic news.
"It takes the power of the press to ring them up and get it sorted, so thanks very much.
"Daniel can now get back to concentrating on his education."
Noel Kelly, deputy headteacher of Monk's Walk, said: "The matter is resolved.
"We are not going to have Daniel's education jeopardised by this as we are really pleased with the way he is doing.
"College is the making of him."
A council spokeswoman added: "It's a new year and a new term, and the taxi needed to be rearranged.
"It's not because we didn't want to pay for the taxi, it's because we weren't sure when he would require it again in the new year.
"It has all been settled now though.
