ACTION-PACKED school holidays may be over for Fylde youngsters after a children's charity claim they face spiralling debt over soaring Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) fees.

Sheffield-based King's Sports Camps -- who operate a kids holiday camp at Kirkham Grammar School -- say they may be forced to shut down after the CRB more than doubled its staff checking costs.

The CRB is a government initiative set up in 2002 to check into the background and criminal history of all current staff and new recruits working with children and vulnerable adults.

The increase -- which is set to come into fruition on July 1 -- will see the cost of a 'standard' check rise from £12 to £24 and a more in-depth 'enhanced' check soaring from £12 to £29.

King's Sports Camps -- a member of the King's Trust -- claim their limited funds mean they could soon have a £29,000 debt to pay after clearing their 1,000 staff members with the CRB.

The charity -- who organise holiday and weekend sports camps and activities for around 30, 000 children aged four to 17 throughout the UK -- also support various projects around the world, such as supporting youngsters who cope with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

But say they may have to now reduce staffing levels or force new and existing staff to pay for their own CRB checks.

King's Operations Manager, Graham Sandersfield said: "We provide a valuable service to families with high quality fun and sporting activities for children throughout the holidays.

"We fully appreciate the need to have the infrastructure in place for checks and all our staff are rigorously checked, we are being hit hard by increasing costs, which may lead to the closure of some operations."

"An obvious solution is for us to pass on the cost to staff but this will make it even harder for us to recruit, quality staff.

"It also means that qualified sports students looking for holiday employment may have to look elsewhere."

A Home Office spokesman said: "The rise is a direct result of increases in the volume of work and changes to procedures.

"As for this charity asking staff to pay for their own checks, that is not the responsibility of the bureau."