English city set to bar 'green-haired' French students running amok on school trips

It's perhaps a somewhat surprising picture of a French school trip.

But according to one councillor in the historic cathedral city of Canterbury, Kent, this is how some our contintental neighbours choose to entertain themselves when they arrive on English shores.

Which is why his call for certain groups of visitors from across the Channel to stay away from the city could well threaten the entente cordiale.

It will at least infuriate thousands of French folk who have suffered the arrival of raucous English school parties on their own doorstep.

Liberal Democrat Alex Perkins, 44, made his remarks as councillors discussed a proposal for a new coach park for the city.

"I'm not sure we want tourists who spray their hair green and squirt silly string all over the place," he said.

"What we need is quality tourism and people who come for a few days and stay in our hotels."

Last night former tour guide Mr Perkins said the city would be better off without the unruly schoolchildren, who run amok, buying silly string, while their teachers leave them unsupervised.

He said:"'They're running amok - there are groups of students who just aren't supervised.

"In my experience as a tour guide of the city I have seen many incidents of European children wandering around causing trouble.

"It's not good for other tourists to see this happening. We want Canterbury to be a viable tourist hub."

He added there was even one occasion when a German student cut his foot badly and needed hospital treatment after deciding to go wading in the river.

"Clearly not all coach parties are like this but there are many groups that end up wandering the streets when their teachers should be looking after them.

"I remember an incident some years ago when I had to look after a group of kids in an orchard while we had to track down their teachers."

He said English schoolchildren would buy bangers and let them off on school trips to France, meanwhile French visitors tended to buy silly string.

"They thoroughly enjoy themselves but aren't really contributing anything to the economy," he said.

Quick to insist that he didn't actually want to ban school trips, he said: 'This is not the majority, the majority are controlled but I'm worried about those who aren't.

"We need to ask ourselves what sort of tourists we want."

He said pupils should consider visiting less-touristy areas in Kent including the seaside resorts of Herne Bay, Whitstable and Dover.

The cathedral city benefits from five million tourists who flock there every year.

A mecca for pilgrims who visit the world famous Cathedral, which dates back to 602AD - it is one of the most visited cities in the country.

It generates hundreds of millions a year in tourism revenue with £10 a day generated from each school visitor.

Mr Perkins was not alone in calling for a different quality of tourist.

Council leader John Gilbey said: 'It's not necessarily going to be feasible to get rid of tourists but it is clear we do need to raise the quality of tourism.'

Tourism manager Neil McCollum added the cross-Channel visitors were considered to be the low-end of the tourism market.

He said: "We don't market the city to French and Belgian schoolchildren because we know they are going to come anyway.

"We try to target the higher end of the market - those people from the UK and abroad who want a short break and might spend two or three nights here and put a lot more into the economy which in turn keeps people in jobs."