The plane was not boarded untill 08.30, with a depature that was scheduled for 06.45, more than two hours in arrears, so crewing would appear to have been the issue for a scheduled departure having been missed, as the captain said and not ash at that stage, nor would it have been had the flight departed on time. The ash became an issue because of the delayed departure, which led to the cancelation.
My D-I-L did tell the Menzies staff that she was a Spanish resident, but they assumed she had somewhere to go and made no enquiry as to her or the children's circumstances, which is simply not good enough.
As for the Passenger Services Manager, her exact words have been recorded and will be passed to Easyjet.
Just a catalogue of errors by Easy and their agents, not a comedy, compounded by a less than compasionate member of handling agent management, to top it all off.
...and bk, I suggest you look at the regulations in force for delays of over 5 hours and compensation payable, then you will realise why the flight was canceled at the 4 hours 45 minutes delayed point.