ONCE-in-a-lifetime trips to see Take That in concert, The Jersey Boys and The Lion King on stage in London, visits to Legoland and Cadbury World and holidays to Italy, Belgium and Spain...

Customers of Lowestoft Travel have been contacting The Journal this week to voice their anger over holidays and trips they have paid up to hundreds of pounds for – but seem destined never to happen.

Tony Pettley, 74, of Lowestoft, booked a two-week trip to Lloret De Mar in Spain in September, and had paid �194 plus �50 for travel insurance.

'It has hit me hard because I have only got my pension to survive on,' he said.

Janet Davidson booked a holiday with three friends. 'We were due to leave for Spain on Friday, March 18. We were all packed and getting excited, but on the day before we were due to leave we had a phone call saying the holiday was off... It was a nightmare,' she said.

'You read about these things but don't expect it to happen to you.'

Nathan BlowerS and Nadine Fletcher, of Moyes Road, Lowestoft, said they still hoped to get back �438 having been booked on to a holiday in Italy in June as part of their compensation for an ill-fated Lowestoft Travel trip to Paris they had booked previously.

'They changed the times of pick-up at the last minute and we were left standing outside the Tramways pub in Lowestoft for two hours in the cold!'

Others who have lost out include Mr and Mrs Stone, of Kessingland, who paid �598 to go to Italy in June this year; Mr Crowe, of Kessingland, who paid �409 for the same trip; Mr and Mrs Spencer who paid �758 cash for a holiday in Spain and Mrs Chander and Mrs Rowley, of Hopton, who paid �119 each to go to Costa Brava last month.

Mrs James, of Bevan Street West, has lost her deposit for a five-day holiday to Ostend in November this year, while Charles and Patricia Marsh have both been 'let down by Lowestoft Travel,' they said this week.

'We booked in February to go to Ostend for a Turkey and Tinsel break in November. We paid a �60 deposit and �50 insurance but we can't get this money back,' the couple, from Love Road, said.

Mrs Glampson, of Kirkley Park Road, paid Lowestoft Travel �109 cash to see Jersey Boys. 'The cheque, dated March 3, was returned as they said not enough people booked – but this bounced.'

Julie Clarke, from Carlton Colville, paid 'months ago' to take her eight-year-old boy to see The Lion King in London later this month, but now she's been left 'disappointed' and 'let down' at not being able to go.

Angela and Charlotte Soloman booked two tickets for The Lion King as a 16th birthday present last summer and were due to go last November. But Lowestoft Travel contacted them a week before the show and said they weren't going ahead with the trip as there had not been sufficient interest.

'We stupidly rebooked for April (later this month) and now we have found this out – my daughter is very upset as am I,' Mrs Soloman said.

Nicola McDonald booked tickets for herself and her daughter to go to Legoland later this month. 'It was for her 13th birthday, it has all been paid for,' she said.

'My daughter is very upset now and so am I.'

Last month, Paula Low was all set for a trip to take her daughter to Birmingham to see Cadbury World, as a special 13th birthday treat, which had been paid for by Mrs Low's mother.

'We sat and waited over an hour for a coach that didn't turn up. It took us two days to get hold of someone, only to be told they didn't know why the coach had not turned up and a further five phone calls to secure a cheque which still hasn't cleared...

'My mother and daughter were both really upset as the lovely birthday gift was unable to happen.'