Hike in school meal cost 'will eat away at cash of poor'

SCHOOL meals in the Capital are set to rise by 10p-a-day at a time when uptake is already among the lowest in Scotland.

The city council's budget, approved last week, includes plans to increase the cost of a primary school meal from 1.65 to 1.75 in August, and a secondary school meal from 2.15 to 2.25.

A similar 10p hike was introduced last August, and experts today warned the price rise would hit low-income families, and could result in fewer pupils eating school meals, despite efforts to improve youngsters' diets. Opposition parties said the move was about raising revenue.

Currently, around three-quarters of secondary school pupils already opt to either bring packed lunches or eat outside the school gates at takeaways, fast food restaurants or bakeries, meaning only a quarter of them take school meals.

School meals in Edinburgh are also thought to be among the costliest in Scotland.

In Midlothian, secondary school pupils pay just 1.70, and prices have been frozen in the authority's budget for next year.

The city council today admitted it needed to improve the uptake of school meals, but said rising food prices – coupled with high inflation – led to the decision.

Scottish Parent Teacher Council development manager Judith Gillespie said the council's financial trouble over the past year had left it with a "horrible dilemma".

"Money is limited and local authorities have to work out how best to spend it," she said.

But she added: "I suspect that uptake (of school meals] will drop, which runs counter to efforts to get pupils to eat healthy meals.

"It's important to remember that those pupils who receive free meals will be protected, but families on low incomes who don't qualify for the free meals will be most badly hit. For them, it could be ten pence a day too far."

Latest figures show a rise in school meal uptake in city secondaries from 23 per cent in 2006, when it was the lowest in Scotland, to 26 per cent in 2007.

The new price of school meals will also apply at special schools and nursery schools, where the cost will be 1.75. School milk is also to go up from nine pence to 11 pence. Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the city's education leader, said: "Council meals are subsidised through the Scottish Government's Hungry for Success initiative. However, due to a rise in food prices and inflation, it is necessary to increase the price of school meals.

"We encourage pupils to eat school meals and try to provide them with tasty, balanced meals including vegetarian and healthy options. We have introduced salad bars, panini machines and smoothie makers, which have all proved to be very popular.

"It is our intention to continue to monitor trends in healthy eating.

"We believe that we still need to improve in this area by attracting more young people to stay in school for meals.

"It is important that we work with students and their parents and listen to their suggestions to try to meet their needs."

Councillor Andrew Burns, the Labour group education spokesman, said the increases represented a rise of between five and six per cent.

"Such inflation-busting increases are completely at odds with all our efforts to promote and encourage healthy eating, and seem to be more about revenue raising. Labour's budget contained no increases to the price of any school meals," he said.

Research in 2006 showed a huge gap in the take-up of meals at different secondary schools across the city.

Only one-in-20 youngsters at Boroughmuir High School in Viewforth was found to eat in the school canteen – far fewer than at secondary schools such as Craigmount and Queensferry, where nearly half of pupils take school dinners.

Education leaders believe one of the reasons so few pupils at inner-city schools like Boroughmuir and James Gillespies (where only 11 per cent go to the canteen) eat school dinners, is that there are more restaurants, cafes and shops in the area to tempt them away.

Stage set for fight as theatres face cutting shows

FEARS have been raised that two of Edinburgh's biggest theatres will have to slash the number of shows they stage unless city councillors agree to a huge funding boost.

The Evening News has obtained copies of confidential e-mails in which bosses at the Festival and King's theatres warn they need 225,000 extra funding over the next year.

They say if the money is not forthcoming, discussions will have to begin on a "reduction in service".

It is thought this could result in fewer performances, with the King's most likely to be affected. The venue is already only used 24 to 26 weeks a year and any cutbacks could see shows limited to just the festival and pantomime season.

The council will reveal the level of its grant next month, but officials have warned that such a major cash injection is "not likely", and they have recommended budgeting for "standstill funding".

Theatre chiefs hit back at the level of financial support, which has remained static over the past three years, and said they were "disappointed" and "concerned".

In the e-mail to the council at the end of last year, Festival City Theatres Trust chairman Chris Masters said both theatres required increasing levels of maintenance expenditure.

He wrote: "If we are not even to be in a position to return to the funding levels of three years ago in real terms, then I believe that we will have no alternative but to discuss with the council what reduction in service level is acceptable, and also whether it is realistic to continue to operate both theatres at their current level."

Mr Masters said the trust would also struggle to develop plans for both a refurbishment of the King's, and the creation of a 2 million extension to the Festival Theatre.

The two council-owned theatres, which are major venues for the Edinburgh International Festival, have been run by a joint trust since 1998.

The organisation found itself close to insolvency three years ago, and the local authority twice stepped in with cash bail-outs totalling more than 500,000.

Mr Masters said every effort must be made to avoid a similar predicament in the coming year. "Given all that has been achieved over the last three years, and the undoubted importance of the performing arts to the city, I believe that (the extra 225,000] would be an extremely worthwhile investment," he said.

But in a response sent to Mr Masters last month, the council's director of corporate services, Jim Inch, said: "I appreciate the board's aspirations for development, and I am heartened that in the light of funding difficulties facing the council, you offered to review your priorities and put some of your plans on hold."

A spokesman for the council added today: "All organisations in receipt of funding have already been advised of financial pressures faced by the council, and that increases in funding levels will be very limited."

Theatre chiefs could not be contacted for further comment.

SPENDING REVELATION LEADS TO CITY SPIN DOCTOR REVIEW

AN independent review of the city council's public relations department is to be launched to ensure it is run efficiently.

The measure, which could lead to cutbacks, comes after it was discovered the local authority spends more on publicity and spin doctors than any other council in Scotland.

Figures published by The Taxpayers Alliance showed the council spent 3.37 million on public relations in 2006/7 – up 118.4 per cent on 1996/7.

The cash has been spent on measures such as press officers, adverts and Outlook, the council's free newspaper.

The council's head of corporate communications, Isabell Reid, said: "It's important to us that both the members and the people of Edinburgh have confidence we are delivering an efficient and cost-effective service."