Stretched families welcome free fun day at pier

A seaside pier has provided a free day out at the fair to help families with the cost of school holidays.

Clacton Pier gave 50 passes to Barnardo's to offer to people who might otherwise have struggled.

About 30 local children and their carers benefited from the scheme organised by the children's charity, which is running a summer holiday campaign to support families with stretched budgets.

One child described it as "the best day of the summer".

For twins Thea and Morgan, the day out was "amazing" and their "best day ever".

Their mother Tiffany from Walton-on-the-Naze has five children and she said the free pass had saved her about £200.

"It makes us bond more because we're all together. I bond with Alfie because I go on a ride with him," she said.

Her son Alfie, 11, who went on the rollercoaster several times, described the day as his "best ever" as he had not been to the pier for a while.

"There's a lot of parental guilt," said Liam Smith for Barnardo's.

"If you are a parent, who maybe can't afford to take your children to attractions that their friends are going to, you may feel awful about that.

"We look after parents as well and help them with the struggle of juggling the summer holidays."

Kay Robinson from the Essex child and family well-being service agreed about the sense of guilt felt by parents not being able to take children for days out.

"They feel very guilty, to the extent they will go to places where there's hardly anything for the children to do because they don't want the children to see them and then say, 'Mum can I have the money for this'", she said.

She added it was important for the whole family as a unit to "come out and have a good time together.

"That creates good memories and with those memories creates stability."

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