Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 20:55 12 Oct 2024
 
- P&O owner to attend summit despite row over minister's comments
- Inside Israel's combat zone in southern Lebanon
- Woman dies after going overboard from cruise ship
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 22/10/24 - BoA Public Transport talk
25/10/24 - Melksham Transport Group
16/11/24 - Special Bletchey to Bicester
27/11/24 - WWRUG, Trowbridge

On this day
12th Oct (2007)
Release in EU of Rail Simultor game (*)

Train RunningCancelled
19:30 Penzance to Plymouth
19:42 Paignton to Exmouth
20:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
20:45 Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth
21:01 Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads
22:47 Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads
23:20 Didcot Parkway to Oxford
Short Run
16:50 Penzance to Cardiff Central
17:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
19:01 Severn Beach to Frome
19:13 Salisbury to Gloucester
19:30 London Paddington to Taunton
20:13 London Paddington to Swindon
20:35 Banbury to Didcot Parkway
20:59 Cardiff Central to Exeter St Davids
21:26 Exmouth to Paignton
21:42 Bristol Temple Meads to Portsmouth & Southsea
22:04 Banbury to Didcot Parkway
Delayed
17:27 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
19:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
19:48 London Paddington to Swansea
21:25 Worcestershire Parkway to London Paddington
21:25 Swindon to Gloucester
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
October 12, 2024, 20:56:55 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[144] London City Airport expansion approved
[132] Atlantic Coast Express - 12th October 2024
[96] Landing page - QR arrivals start here
[30] Go ahead given to new railway stations and SWML upgrade Cardif...
[23] Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing dis...
[17] New station at Ashley Down, Bristol
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Poll
Question: Would you let your teenage (but not yet 16) child Interrail with friends?  (Voting closed: September 01, 2024, 17:07:42)
No way - 3 (10%)
Probably not - 2 (6.7%)
Maybe - depends on circumstances - 12 (40%)
Probably I would - 8 (26.7%)
Yes, of course - 5 (16.7%)
Total Voters: 30

Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
Author Topic: Allsopp felt 'sick' after social services referral  (Read 2666 times)
broadgage
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 5551



View Profile
« Reply #15 on: August 26, 2024, 11:41:05 »

In a recent job we had a trainee/apprentice who WAS taken to work by his mother ! and whom was not allowed to wash his overalls in the washing machine provided but had to to take them home for "mum to do them nicely"
Logged

A proper intercity train has a minimum of 8 coaches, gangwayed throughout, with first at one end, and a full sized buffet car between first and standard.
It has space for cycles, surfboards,luggage etc.
A 5 car DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) is not a proper inter-city train. The 5+5 and 9 car DMUs are almost as bad.
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 734


View Profile
« Reply #16 on: August 26, 2024, 12:09:50 »

I recall with some embarrassment returning to school aged 17 in March 1963 accompanied by my father. We lived in Sidmouth then, and he normally drove to collect and deliver me at the end and beginning of term. But in one of the worst winters for years the roads were covered in snow.  Quite how we drove to Honiton Station (up a long hill and down a steeper one) I don't know. (Seven years later I was driving my Mini Countryman going via the supposedly less-risky route via Ottery St Mary when it skidded on ice across the road, hitting a bank and toppling over.)

We got to Andover, where we had an 80-minute wait for the Marlborough connection in a poorly-lit and chilly waiting-room, where we were joined by unaccompanied school-mates. By the time we got on the Marlborough train it was dark, so I was unable to appreciate the route that I was to explore several times after its closure.

I would like to think that it wasn't so much a matter of my needing to be looked after, more how on my own I could handle a large trunk and smaller "brewbox" (as we termed tuck boxes). On arrival in Marlborough there was a mile-long walk to the college (I think that my luggage must have been collected later.)

And poor old dad then had to return to Sidmouth ...
Logged
johnneyw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2416


From station to station, back to Bristol city....


View Profile
« Reply #17 on: August 26, 2024, 12:12:49 »

It's possible, I think, that some of the concerns that lay behind the Kirsty Allsop incident were to some degree generated by the recent tragic events on Tenerife.
Logged
Mark A
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1591


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: August 26, 2024, 12:52:31 »

Sorry all that happened. Rather than a confrontational doorstep meeting, I'm surprised the standard procedure wasn't risk assessed and amended to have the initial contact by letter or phone call. Also, reading you your rights while you were running a professional workshop... er...

And for the rest... yes, the need for circumspection understood and from first person experience, if anyone meets with 'A situation' and finds they need someone to talk things through afterwards for their own benefit, one point of call is your GP who will be aware of various support resources - and sometimes an individual finds that just the act of asking for support is positive benefits them.

Mark
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 42096



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #19 on: August 26, 2024, 12:55:31 »

In a recent job we had a trainee/apprentice who WAS taken to work by his mother ! and whom was not allowed to wash his overalls in the washing machine provided but had to to take them home for "mum to do them nicely"

Helicopter parents are a nightmare to an employer - I remember a call from one formidable lady who was doing her daughter an enormous disservice and another who didn't stay with us long when she called in to make herself unavailable at short notice because she had to help dad.   And, yes, I have encountered some great parents of younger staff too.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 42096



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #20 on: August 26, 2024, 13:02:42 »

Sorry all that happened. Rather than a confrontational doorstep meeting, I'm surprised the standard procedure wasn't risk assessed and amended to have the initial contact by letter or phone call. Also, reading you your rights while you were running a professional workshop... er...

Oh - I'm sure it was risk assessed, judging by the phone call she got a minute later from a colleague to check if she was OK.  I suspect that they wanted to take me by surprise rather than provide an opportunity to hide - well, we had nothing to hide.

"Come in - I'm sure there's been some sort of mistake here" and (to class) "you probably heard that. Please take a few minutes break while I sort this out".  But, yes, I was shocked and put off my stride a little - not a lot because I have had an awful lot thrown unexpected at me over time.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
johnneyw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2416


From station to station, back to Bristol city....


View Profile
« Reply #21 on: August 26, 2024, 15:05:48 »

My parents would have not let either of us on such a foreign trip at that age but were happy for us to set out on various Youth Hostelling adventures around England and Wales, usually getting there and back by public transport.  Happy memories.
Logged
LiskeardRich
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 3481

richardwarwicker@hotmail.co.uk
View Profile
« Reply #22 on: August 26, 2024, 15:23:23 »

It isn’t as straight forward as it first looked.

The lad has left school, but being an august baby hasn’t reached his birthday yet. Are august babies stopped from doing other things when they leave school like getting a job? Most employers require to be 16?
Logged

All posts are my own personal believes, opinions and understandings!
broadgage
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 5551



View Profile
« Reply #23 on: August 26, 2024, 15:23:47 »

In this particular cases, what were the arrangements for overnight accommodation ? Most budget hotels have a minimum age of 18, or at the most 16 for unaccompanied children.
Do youth hostels take younger persons than that, and do they have youth hostels in the places visited.
Logged

A proper intercity train has a minimum of 8 coaches, gangwayed throughout, with first at one end, and a full sized buffet car between first and standard.
It has space for cycles, surfboards,luggage etc.
A 5 car DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) is not a proper inter-city train. The 5+5 and 9 car DMUs are almost as bad.
TaplowGreen
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 8215



View Profile
« Reply #24 on: August 26, 2024, 15:47:57 »

I don't think it's beyond the bounds of possibility that the Honourable Kirsty Allsopp (daughter of the 6th Baron Hindlip) and a prominent supporter of the Conservative party has been the victim of politically motivated mischief in terms of someone reporting her to Social Services?
Logged
ChrisB
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 12747


View Profile Email
« Reply #25 on: August 26, 2024, 15:50:26 »

She has been taken to task by those in the Trans community for her views, for sure.
Logged
TaplowGreen
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 8215



View Profile
« Reply #26 on: August 26, 2024, 16:03:08 »

She has been taken to task by those in the Trans community for her views, for sure.

..............and now those in the trains community are discussing her!
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 42096



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #27 on: September 05, 2024, 03:22:12 »

This poll concluded a few days ago - showing widely varied views amongst our members as to whether children under [16] should be allowed to travel (long distance) alone or with friends of their own generation.

I was in "Dad, may I ..." situation with both of my children at an age when it was clear that parental permission was required and there was not going to be an obvious answer.  And in both clear first trip cases having listened to the request and the planning behind it, it was a "yes' though not without some natural worry.   Both had known destinations and contacts there and had the initial trips been Interrailing without detailed / advanced plans and checks, the initial answer might have been more cautious.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Ralph Ayres
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 382


View Profile
« Reply #28 on: September 05, 2024, 16:26:58 »

In a way my main reservation is the perceived need to go abroad at that age, with all the extra things that could go wrong and extra barriers such as language to contend with if they do, but even a UK (United Kingdom) trip would have been difficult for this pair to make.  The English Youth Hostel Association now has a policy that children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a person who is 18 years or older.  The tightening of rules came in rather frustratingly just as my son reached a level of maturity that I'd have been quite happy for him and friends of a similar age go unaccompanied on an overnight trip, and staying in a Youth Hostel was in my view the safest and most rewarding way of doing it but their age barred it.
Logged
Oxonhutch
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1283



View Profile
« Reply #29 on: September 05, 2024, 17:48:15 »

The tightening of rules came in rather frustratingly just as my son reached a level of maturity that I'd have been quite happy for him and friends of a similar age go unaccompanied on an overnight trip, and staying in a Youth Hostel was in my view the safest and most rewarding way of doing it but their age barred it.

My Youth Hostelling started at 14 which I consider a valuable part of my childhood. They've taken the Youth out of Hostel!
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page