DREAMS of a long-awaited trip abroad have been dashed for a group of adventurous youngsters.

The teenagers, from Marske Youth Centre, in east Cleveland, have spent months planning and fundraising for the two-week trip to Disneyland in Paris, getting increasingly excited as the July departure date approached.

But yesterday, it emerged that the youngsters' dreams have been dashed because of rules governing youth services overseen by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

Councillor Mary Ovens headed a team of cross-party councillors asked to look at youth club services.

Yesterday, she told fellow councillors how the youngsters had been told that the part-time youth workers did not have the right training and that the trip had not been planned following the correct procedures.

She said that meant it was almost certain that the trip would have to be cancelled.

"Those young people have been seriously let down by the existing system," said Coun Ovens.

She said the problem had resulted from a communication failure within the youth services department, and conceded that it needed to be investigated.

Sheila Argument, chairman of the management committee at the youth centre, said the 25-strong group of 11 to 18-year-olds was bitterly disappointed.

She said the group had been in discussion with the council's youth service since February, yet the first hint of the hitch emerged just three weeks ago. She said: "They are absolutely devastated - they have been fundraising throughout the year.

"The older ones have organised it and held meetings to plan their itinerary and would have helped look after the younger ones - some of them have never been abroad before."

She said the youngsters had been given responsibilities, only to be knocked back by the apparent blunder.

"We are saying to these kids do all of this and this has smacked them back down again. It is kids taking responsibility for what they are doing."

Councillor Ian Jeffrey, the council's lead member for lifelong learning and leisure, said he would be making his own inquiries into what had gone wrong and hoped to have some answers next week