A SCHOOLBOY returned home barefoot from a trip to Blackburn Ice Arena after they lost his shoes.

Daniel Conway (12) was on a school outing to the ice rink and was handing in his skates in exchange for his trainers when they could not be found.

Mother Susan Conway, of Shetland Way, Radcliffe, said that the ice rink managers did not apologise and refused to accept they were responsible for losing his trainers.

Daniel and more than 30 other children from the Derby High School, Bury, were kept waiting for 90 minutes while staff searched for the missing footwear.

Susan said that her son was told someone must have taken his Fila trainers by mistake, and there should be another pair left over which he could have, but no extra pair was found.

She said: "In the end, he just had to go out in his bare feet. All the parents were waiting to pick them up at the school and we were very worried when they didn't turn up for an hour-and-a-half." Susan phoned the ice rink eight times over more than three weeks before she received a letter offering £30 compensation for the £40 trainers.

The letter said that the offer was made on the grounds that the trainers were at least four-and-a-half months old and Susan had not been able to show a receipt to prove their value.

It continued: "We emphasise to you that no liability is accepted by Blackburn Arena. This offer is purely a goodwill gesture on our part, which we believe is more than adequate compensation."

Susan said: "I don't have a problem with the fact that they were lost. These things do happen and I'm not bothered about the money.

"If they had called me within a few days and apologised, I would have been happy with that. But I've had to pester them for so long and I have not even had an apology. I don't call that goodwill."

Mark Halliwell, assistant general manager at Blackburn Arena, who wrote the letter, said that they rarely lost customers' shoes.

He claimed Daniel had been offered a spare pair of shoes and said he had apologised to Susan the first time she phoned.

He said: "This was during the Christmas period and as soon as I got back I contacted her."