A father-of-two has been left with sore feet after waiting for hours in a tedious queue to get vital travel documents for his son.

Davide Lombardi, 40, from Jessop Road in Norwich, left home at 4am on Monday, May 30 for the passport office in Peterborough.

He arrived at the site at 5.55am and was finally handed the document for his four-year-old son at 4pm.

His eldest son, Alessandro Lombardi, is due to fly to Malaga Airport with his wife and one-year-old son on Thursday, June 2.

They will be meeting Mr Lombardi in Fuengirola while the sound engineer works on a Simply Red gig - but the trip was in doubt after a nine-week wait for the passport renewal.

Mr Lombardi, who is flying to Spain separately, said: "I got there at 5.55am when there were about 20 people in front of me in the queue. It was freezing."

He was put in a dedicated line at 7.30am for people who had been waiting for a passport for more than six weeks or if flights were in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The sound engineer finally got inside the office and at 9.40am he learned his son's passport had been processed.

Mr Lombardi said: "Once you got into the office the staff were really nice and efficient.

"The people in the queue were not desperate. They were resigned to the fact they had to wait."

He added the queue peaked at approximately 200 people at around midday.

The 40-year-old added: "I love this country for its efficiency. I have lived around the world and have always thought Britain was one of the most efficient countries.

"It is downer when systems don't work."

Mr Lombardi and his wife applied online for their son's passport renewal on March 30 because it expired in July and were given a five to six week wait time for the document to be processed.

"But one-two weeks later passport applications were given a waiting time of 10 weeks and we thought this was going to be a disaster," he added.

Two attempts at upgrading the application process were unsuccessful.

The Home Office was approached for comment.