Butlin’s bosses have this week apologised to families whose holidays at the Minehead resort - booked for last weekend - were cancelled with less than two days’ notice because of staffing problems.

The result was holiday misery for visitors who had turned to staycations after Covid-19 put paid to most people’s hopes of a foreign break.

One mother who had her dreams of a long-overdue seaside weekend holiday shattered said: “Our booking has been cancelled just two days before we were due to go. I am dreading telling my children.”

Distraught families bombarded the holiday giant with phone calls and emails after they discovered their plans were in ruins.

The problem, caused by what a spokesman called ‘recruitment challenges’, was confined to Minehead, the largest of the company’s three resorts, which at capacity can host 7,500 holidaymakers.

For the full report, see today’s Free Press