twitter account ukpassportcheck saved our holiday after several hours refreshing for renewal appointments online on the gov website. This person has an algorithm set up and we didn't think it would work but it did and now we have an appointment in Peterborough 3 days before our holiday. It's free but you can also donate to Bristol childrens hospital I think it is in memory of his brother.
anyway off to bed now as been up all night - hope this helps someone else.
further info: yes I know I should of got it sorted before now but there are extenuating circs which I'm not going in to.
and also yes I'm lucky about the holiday, lucky about the extra £100 on top of the already £72 renewal fee and also not lucky about a lot of other things. So please no stupid comments.
night night 🙃