Felpham students and teachers stranded by Icelandic volcano chaos

The party of 39 including teachers, parents and players from Felpham Colts football squad were due to return from a week-long trip to Barcelona when the ash from the volcano caused flights across the continent to be grounded.

The dismayed group were left for days with no help and were forced to loan each other money to pay mounting hotel bills for their extended stay.

Speaking from Barcelona, stranded parent Kay Phillips said: "This is a complete nightmare.

"We have worked out this is going to cost us around 500 each in extra hotel bills, ferry costs and the cost of the coach to get home.

"People have been saying to us why don't you just get the ferry back '“ but they don't realise there's a rail strike in France so we can't go anywhere.

"Four of our group tried to hire a car only for the car-hire company to tell them they'd made a mistake in booking it '“ we think the other people just paid them more.

"The children are also concerned as two of their members had oral exams they have missed, and there are teachers here from Felpham Community College and Bognor Community College who are not able to be in work."

Ferry services, coaches and hire-car firms across the Channel have been completely overwhelmed, leaving many thousands of British travellers '“ including the Felpham group '“ unable to find alternative transport.

Concerns were raised by the group of 21 teenagers from the Bognor area that crucial GCSE exam work could be missed as neither airlines, Spanish authorities nor the British Embassy were able to provide assistance.

But Ms Phillips, of Roundle Square Road, Felpham, revealed that after days of being kept in the dark, a local rescue mission was in hand in the form of Bognor coach company, Woods.

The firm has offered to pick up half of the dismayed travellers in Spain today, along with a separate group of holidaymakers hit by the flight ban.

Angered by the sense of apathy from authorities and the failure of their flight company EasyJet to offer guidance, Ms Phillips believes more should have been done to help their party, which includes her son Tom.

As she explained, plans to send Royal Navy ships to assist those affected were meaningless '“ as this applied to only about 200 people in Spain registered with the British Consulate.

"Woods travel company has said it can take 16 of the group home on a coach, but that leaves the rest of us flying home next Monday '“ if flights are able to go then," she said.

"We are not as badly off as some people. There are friends of the group who are on holiday in Tenerife who have just been put in a 'holding pen' while they wait for flights home."

EasyJet was approached for comment but no-one was available at the time of going to press.