A council which has given all its children free healthy school meals for three years plans to scrap the scheme in March, saving £2m. Labour MPs John Prescott, Alan Johnson and Diana Johnson have all backed a campaign to save the scheme, launched almost three years ago, when a Labour administration ran Hull City Council.But the Liberal Democrats, who came to power in May 2006, are committed to ending the three-year pilot and, according to a council spokesman, were clear that if they gained power, would charge parents who could afford to pay. ‘Those who cannot afford the meals will still receive them for free,' the spokesman said. ‘But the money saved charging those who can afford the meals will, among other things, be used to ensure the high nutritional content remains.' Leader of the council, Cllr Carl Minns, said the decision had been taken, due to budgetary pressures on the council. ‘We're not scrapping free school meals, we are just not continuing the pilot when it runs out, and will return to the system in place across the rest of the country,' he explained. ‘Politically, if the education minister and deputy prime minister claim the scheme is a success and should carry on, the Government should pay for it to run across the country.' Backing the petition, Ms Johnson said take up of healthy meals in Hull schools had been extremely high, had a positive impact on classroom performance, and was backed by children and teachers. But Cllr Minns argued the positive results were not because the meals were free, it was because they were healthy. Hull won an MJ Award in 2005 for its legal challenge to allow the council to supply free school meals.
