Planning a family holiday is exciting and stressful at the same time.

The same concerns are shared by millions of people every year as the day of departure approaches. Have we got suitable clothing, enough sun-cream, a basic first aid kit, the airline tickets, travel documents - and the passports?

Anxiety attacks can usually be kept at bay with careful forward planning. But thanks to a system failure at Britain's passport offices, many families' best laid plans are lying in pieces.

Tonight we report on the anguish of Vicky and Mark Henderson of Leeman Road, York. They have been preparing for their fortnight in Spain since they booked it more than a year ago.

The holiday is now imminent. And yet they are still waiting for a passport for their 18-month-old daughter Levi-Victoria.

They sent off an application in March, aware of the new rule which means children have to have their own passports. But the Hendersons have heard nothing since.

With every day that passes, their anxiety increases. The passport office is not taking calls. Even personal applications are now being discouraged. So they can do no more than hope that the vital document arrives in time to save their £1,500 holiday.

This is no way to prepare for what should be the most relaxing two weeks of the year. Unfortunately their experience is all too common. A temperamental computer system at the regional passport office in Liverpool, combined with a rush of applications for the new child passports, has been blamed for the chaos. But these excuses will cut no ice with the thousands of people whose yearly break is now in jeopardy.

Emergency procedures are in place at the passport office. Instead of dealing on a first come, first served basis, staff are processing applications according to the date of departure.

But this is a very late response to a very foreseeable problem. The Home Office must have been aware that the child passports would add a considerable burden to the office's workload. More staff should have been taken on in anticipation. And the computer bug should have been tackled with greater urgency.

Those who remember the promise that our membership of the European Union would do away with the need for passport control in Europe will allow themselves an ironic smile at the current mayhem.

It also highlights the weakness of a system where Yorkshire residents have to apply to Liverpool for their passports. Smaller, more local, processing centres are needed if we are to avoid a repetition of this mess.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.