PARENTS have voiced anger after learning a council has extended this year's school summer holidays to seven weeks.

Families said they had been left facing increased costs, childcare issues and "children climbing the walls" after North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) said the traditional six-week break had been elongated from 29 working days to 34, with a teacher training day on the end, due to the 2015 calendar.

Neighbouring councils in Durham, Darlington and Cleveland have set six-week holidays, with children returning on September 1.

An NYCC spokeswoman said it followed a set of guiding principles used by councils to set school term dates, which included that the first day of term each September would be the first Monday in the month.

She added: "This is in line with a number of other local authorities within the region [Yorkshire] that have the same start date.

"Government statutory guidance states that schools must meet for at for at least 190 days during any school year.

"The dates for 2015-16 were agreed by county council executive members last summer and published last June."

Parents said they had been left aghast by the decision, as they had insufficient work holidays to cover and now faced having to pay £200-a-week per child for play schemes, if they could find a place for their children.

Mother-of-two and civil servant Michelle Needham, of Ripon, said: "There's hardly any clubs in the area, and they finish earlier than the working day, so someone will have to take time off to pick them up.

"After six weeks the children are bored and want to go back to school, after seven they will be climbing the walls."

In 2013, the Government announced it wanted to give all schools the power to set their own term dates and last year The National Association of Head Teachers debated ditching the timetable, which has remained largely unchanged since Victorian times.

Father-of-four and leading North Yorkshire businessman Kevin Hollinrake said the seven-week holiday did not appear to have been well thought out and that firms tended to want their staff to take short breaks.

Justine Roberts, chief executive of Mumsnet, said: "Some parents love the extended break, but plenty of others find it very taxing, and there's no doubt that it presents childcare challenges for those in work, and holiday expense challenges for nearly everyone."