Ministers deny council pact at risk over school meals

Published on Thursday 9 October 2008 21:53

THE Scottish Government denies its "historic" concordat with councils is on the verge of falling apart over the issue of providing free school meals.

SNP ministers and many councils have clashed over whether the meals should go to all children in P1 to P3 classes.

An emergency meeting of the leaders of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) is to discuss the issue.

As reported yesterday in The Scotsman, Cosla president Pat Watters has backed the Scottish Government, saying that if councils renege on their promise of providing free school meals, it will show they cannot be trusted to have ring-fencing removed from their budgets.

However, councils, including those run by SNP coalitions, say they do not have the money to provide the meals and point out the only obligation in the concordat was to freeze council tax.

One senior Cosla figure said there was almost nothing the emergency meeting could achieve.

A source close to the First Minister, Alex Salmond, insisted the concordat remained strong and that councils were expected to fulfil the promise they made to provide free school meals.