A NEW Government Green Paper detailing plans for tough penalties for mothers who stop estranged fathers from seeing their children won't go far enough, according to dads in Swindon.

The paper, due out this summer, is expected to include measures such as taking away driving licences and ordering community punishment for mothers who ignore court orders to prevent their former husbands or partners from having contact with their children.

It will also contain proposals aimed at diverting couples from drawn out court battles over access towards drawing up American-style parenting plans using mediation.

But while frustrated fathers have welcomed the move, some believe it won't do enough to correct inadequacies in the legal system. These were highlighted recently by a judge, who said it had failed a father forced to abandon a five-year struggle to see his daughter because the mother kept on breaking court orders.

Mike*, from Swindon, who went to court four times in an attempt to get his ex-wife to allow regular contact with his 15-year-old twin son and daughter, said: "I think something does need to be done to deter mothers from restricting access or defying court orders, but I don't think something like taking away their driving licence is going to make much difference.

"The problem you are going to have is if mothers have to go out to work, they are not going to be able to get there or take the children to school. It will probably be the children who suffer in the end. But community service would be a better idea."

He believed any improvements in the system had to involve the heavily criticised Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) and the Child Support Agency (CSA). The situation where a father gave up his home, virtually all his possessions, was left with very little money to live on and worst of all, contact with his children, needed to be tackled.

But measures to combat false accusations of domestic violence were also a move in the right direction.

Steve*, who is currently making his third application to have his 10-year-old daughter live with him, said: "A hundred years ago it was all in favour of the man. Now it has gone the other way. What we need to do is bring the pendulum back to the middle."

In his view CAFCASS needed a radical overhaul and women who made false allegations of violence or abuse needed to be made aware that if they lied, they would be punished.

He said he had suffered a "dreadful" CAFCASS report that had completely ignored a 30-page statement he had drawn up stating his case. "It was incredibly biased. The woman who wrote it was really off with me right from the minute we met.

"My daughter was less than 2lbs when she was born and when she came home I was the one who looked after her for the first two-and-a-half years of her life. She loves me and I love her, but none of that counted."

He has seen his little girl for a total of four hours since last August but is hoping that his current application to the family court will at least mean he has access if he doesn't succeed in getting a residence order.

The Green Paper is expected sometime in either June or July.

In the meantime there are sources of support and advice for men denied access to their children by mothers. They include:

Fathers 4 Justice. Website: www.fathers-4-justice.org Telephone: 01787 281 922.

Equal Parenting Council. Website: www.equalparenting.org Helpline: 0906 5501865.

Families Need Fathers. Website: www.fnf.org.uk

Shared Parenting Information Group UK. Website: www.spig.clara.net

UK Men and Fathers' Rights. Website: www.coeffic.demon.co.uk.

(* Names have been changed for legal reasons.)