I, NO doubt with hundreds of other Islanders, have just returned from a fabulous family holiday in the sunshine.

Going in the first week of the extended October half-term break meant that not only was the availability of destinations greater, the price was a heck of a lot lower too.

Had I gone a week later when the rest of the county is on a half term, the price would have risen by around 60 percent – a lot of money in anyone’s book.

Unfortunately, the same choice and deals won’t be available to me and other families this time next year because of the IW Council’s perverse decision to reduce the autumn half term to one week in line with the rest of the country.

Read more: Why did council change half-term holiday?

This was a decision taken by the IW Council’s Alliance administration with little consultation with schools and precisely none with parents. Frankly it makes a mockery of the Alliance’s claim of wanting to involve local people in the decisions that affect them.

I — and my kids for that matter — would very much welcome clarification from the cabinet member responsible for education (Cllr Debbie Andre) as to why this decision was taken at all and why it was done so without any consultation with parents.

Does she not feel that parents should have had a say in something so important?

Decisions such as this, made seemingly on a whim and at the stroke of a pen in some secluded corner of County Hall, have big implications for family life. We deserve a plausible explanation and also, I would suggest, a reconsideration.