Published: Friday, 10th October, 2008 11:46am

Free school meals will lead to axe in services

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Government plans to introduce free school meals for P1-P3 pupils have provoked a wave of opposition this week.

Scottish Borders Council and 15 other local authorities have stated that to fund the scheme other services will have to be axed.

Ministers however insist that local authorities were given enough cash to deliver the £30 million scheme as part of a deal with Cosla last year.

Three schools out of the sixty-four within the Borders region ran the free meals pilot earlier this year and SBC hailed it as a success.

An education spokesperson said: 'The free school meals pilot in the Borders was a success.

'Alongside Fife, we had the largest increase out of all authorities who took part.

'The pilot gave us useful feedback to develop the school meals service into the future.'

The average cost of a school meal for SBC last year was £2.20. In total, the Council spent £2.7 million and generated £1.3 million from the process in income - leading to a shortfall of £1.4 million which the council then subsidised.

At present there are 3500 P1- P3 pupils within Borders schools and the council have no figures available to them which detail the cost of supplying each one with a daily meal.

A council spokesperson said: "At present we don"t have a cost for the implementation of free schools meals as other factors would need to be considered such as an increase in spending on salaries as we would need to recruit more catering staff."

Executive member for Education, Councillor Catriona Bhatia said: 'Whilst the pilot saw an uptake in school meals, it is questionable as to whether giving free meals to P1-3 is the best use of resources, especially when budgets are so tight.

'If there are additional funds it should be used to extend the eligibility for free school meals to those most in need.

"With regard to budgets if no additional funds are given by the Government then it may impact with cuts having to be made elsewhere to deliver this scheme.'