PROM BLUES: Parents have hit out at a limousine company which they claim dropped 16 youngsters off too early on their rainy school prom night.

Mums and dads paid £295 for a vehicle from Audlem-based Top Gear Limos on July 16 as a treat for their children leaving St Mary's Primary School in Tunstall.

The package included an hour in the limousine, glasses of alcohol-free wine for the passengers and a mini disco inside the vehicle.

But parents claim their pupils were given no drinks and dropped off at the school 13 minutes too early.

After they received a written complaint, the company delivered six bottles of alcohol-free champagne. But parents are asking for a £100 refund. Joanne Ridley, of Chell Heath Road, who organised the limousine on behalf of daughter Jordan-Paige and the other parents, said: "When I arrived the children were huddled under the caretaker's porch in the rain." Edward Frayling, the driver on the day of the incident said he arrived at the school at 5.52pm so pupils could have their photographs taken which was 'standard procedure' on all jobs. "The problem was that it was raining so the children ran out of the limo back to the school."

Pictured are the Year 6 pupils. Inset, 11-year-old Jordan-Paige with her mum Joanne. Picture: Malcolm Hart