The partners:
East of England Ambulance ServiceEssex County CouncilEssex County Fire & Rescue SeviceEssex PoliceHighways AgencySouthend-on-Sea Borough CouncilThurrock Council

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Terms and Conditions applicable to booking and payment for Rider Improvement Courses.

 

Essex County Council provides RIDE Courses in partnership with Essex Police on behalf of Police Forces participating in the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme. By acceptance of a RIDE Course you are entering into a contract with Essex County Council for provision of the course and not the Police. You are also agreeing to abide by Terms and Conditions for which the County Council reserve the right to change or vary at any time. Our function is only to provide courses and no representative of Essex County Council course administration staff is permitted to engage in discussion with any client concerning their reason(s) for being referred to the course. Any client who has any dispute as to their eligibility to attend the course should contact the Police Force who referred them to the scheme.

 
1.       Course confirmations (other than those completed online) and availability or change of allocated date enquiries can only be made by phone and will not be accepted by e mail or other form of messaging.
 
2.       For telephone confirmations and online bookings payment for your course will be required at the time of confirming your course. We do not accept cheque or cash payments but in special circumstances payment may be made by Postal Order. However, if the Postal Order payment is not received within 7 days of the provisional booking the course place will be forfeited and the matter referred back to Essex Police. 
 
3.       In the event of any increase in the course cost the fee payable for the course will be that applicable at the time of payment and could be more than originally notified in your offer letter.
 
4.       If for any reason you no longer wish to attend a course which has been paid for you may only apply for a refund provided notice is given more than 7 days before the course. However, a £10 administration fee will be deducted from the refund.
 
5.       If it is considered by the Instructor that for any reason you have failed to complete for reasons such as non-participation or disruption, your course your case will be referred back to the police. You will not be able to claim a refund of your course fee. 
 
6.   If after booking and paying for a course you feel you are unable to comply with or do not agree to the Terms & Conditions, provided notification is received within 7 days of booking your course place will be cancelled and a full refund of any payments made.
 
7.       Once a course date has been confirmed any change of date will be subject to a rescheduling fee of £25. This fee may be waived under certain specific circumstances e.g*
 
Receipt of a Doctors certificate for medical reason (self certificate will not be accepted)
Notification of a hospital appointment
Jury Service
Court appearance
Bereavement
(Appropriate written proof of these may be required to be produced within 7 days of notification.)
 
8.       Please note that difficulties individuals may face with work or child care issues are not considered valid reasons for non attendance at a course or short notice course change requests.
 
9.       If you fail to attend, or are so late that you are not admitted to, the course on the day, you will be liable to pay the full course fee again even if you are able to be re-scheduled. If you are unable to attend on the day of your course for any of the 5 reasons specified above, you will need to contact the course administrator as soon as possible.
 
10.       Any re-booking must be arranged with the office the next working day.
 
11.   Any client with foreign language difficulties who requires the services of an interpreter will be required to provide their own translator, at their cost, to accompany them on the course. The fact that an interpreter/translator is attending with a client must be notified to the office at the time of booking. If no translator is in attendance and it is clear there are likely to be difficulties in understanding the course then admittance to / continuance of the course will be refused. If this is the case the client will be liable to forfeit their course fee.
 
12.   Essex County Council reserves the right to vary or cancel a clients course booking or complete courses at any time. Such instances are rare but may be necessary in exceptional circumstances due to adverse weather or short notice unavailability of instructors. Should the situation arise, every effort will be made to contact clients in sufficient time to arrange an alternative date. If any such circumstances arise and clients who are un-contactable present themselves for the course their cases will be referred to the police as to what further action will be appropriate.
 
13.   Once a course place is booked and confirmed it will be a client’s responsibility to ensure attendance at the specified time and place. Essex County Council cannot be held responsible for any undelivered letters, voicemail, SMS text message or e-mail.
 
14.   Clients must supply a means of contact (preferably mobile phone number) should it be necessary to notify a course cancellation especially in times of extreme weather. No additional fees will be payable by a client if a course is cancelled by the course provider.
 
15.   Satisfactory completion of the course is essential. This means attending and taking a full and active part in all sessions on both days. However, if at any time during the riding aspect of the course it is considered by the instructor that your riding is in any way dangerous then the practical session will be terminated and you will be returned to the centre and rejected from the course.
 
16.   It will be clients’ responsibility to ensure they provide a suitable machine for the practical aspect of the course as motorcycles are not provided. In the event of no motorcycle being available or of unexpected breakdown of their machine, the practical session will be postponed to another date.
 
17.   If any client (or relative or friend) is considered rude and/or abusive to any Essex County Council Staff, or representative, involved in administering or delivering the scheme the client will not be permitted to attend or continue with a course and their case will be referred back to the Police. This may result in the course offer being withdrawn and their case reverting to conditional offer or summons. If payment has been made this will not be refunded. This includes the posting of any comments that are considered rude or derogatory on any social networking website.
 
18.   Satisfactory completion of the course is essential. This means attending and taking a full and active part in all sessions on both days. However, if at any time during the riding aspect of the course it is considered by the instructor that your riding is in any way dangerous then the practical session will be terminated and you will be returned to the centre and rejected from the course.
 
19.   It will be clients’ responsibility to ensure they provide a suitable machine for the practical aspect of the course as motorcycles are not provided. In the event of no motorcycle being available or of unexpected breakdown of their machine, the practical session will be postponed to another date.
 
20.  All courses are held at venues which have public access but not to the room in which courses are being held. Only persons responsible for the delivery of the course and clients attending will be allowed access to the course classroom. The only exceptions to this will be persons present to assist the client with a disability or language interpretation and bona fide observers. From time to time bona fide observers will be present, sometimes unannounced, and they may consist of representatives from the Police or local authority that are present to observe the course. No bona fide observers will be refused access if any client objects to their presence. Should this situation arise any client objecting is free to leave the course and reschedule at a later date but will be subject to a further full course fee.  Any client who feels they are likely to object to the presence of any observer should decline the offer of the course. 

*This list is not exhaustive.