FAMILIES with pupils at schools in the Bury local authority area are not to be fined for taking their children on term time holidays.

Bury Council has announced it is making the move after father Jon Platt won a landmark ruling against the Isle of Wight authority over term-time holidays earlier this year.

But education chiefs stressed that even though they will not now face financial penalties, parents should still not be taking their children out of school for holidays.

A Bury Council spokesman said: “The High Court Case in May means that it is not legally sound at the moment to issue fines for short absences, where attendance is otherwise good.

“The case is due to go to appeal and we await the outcome of that process and updated guidance from Government.

“Our advice to parents remains that school time is precious and they should not remove their children from school for term time holidays.

Bury is thought to be one of a handful of authorities to stop issuing “holiday fines” which came into force in September, 2013. Schools were banned from granting any leave of absence to pupils during term time unless it was for “exceptional circumstances”.

Figures released by the Department for Education show that the number of penalty notices issued to parents in Bury for taking their children out of class rose from 647 in 2011/12 to 1,137 in 2014/15.

The majority of the £60 fines were paid within 28 days.

Nationally there were 151,125 fines handed out in 2014/15, an increase of around 363 per cent on 2010/11 when 32,641 penalty notices for unauthorised absence were issued.

The figures come amid a continuing row over parents’ rights to take their children out of school during term time.

The hike in fines and prosecutions was as a result of a clampdown by Government on children being taken out of lessons without permission from the school.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The rules are perfectly clear — children should not be taken out of school without good reason.

“That is why we have tightened the rules and are supporting schools and local authorities to use their powers to tackle unauthorised absence.

“The evidence shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chances of achieving good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances — vindicating our strong stance on attendance.

“A child who is absent also impacts teachers, whose planning of lessons is disrupted by children missing large portions of teaching.”