'Delight' over free school meals plans for Northumberland

By Ben O'Connell
Published 6th Nov 2020, 10:09 BST
Free school meals have seldom been far from the headlines during the pandemicFree school meals have seldom been far from the headlines during the pandemic
Free school meals have seldom been far from the headlines during the pandemic
Northumberland’s Labour opposition is ‘delighted’ after the Tory council leader set out the next steps in the wake of the free school meals row.

Cllr Glen Sanderson had previously stated that different options may well be in place come the Christmas holidays, following a scheme over half-term that enabled individual councillors to provide grants to community groups or town and parish councils.

He confirmed this to all members at the Wednesday, November 4, full council meeting, where he also committed to cross-party work on the wider issue of food poverty, something which had been called for by Labour.

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“We had a good take-up of the scheme that we introduced last week and I’m grateful to the members who have helped their community and local councils to provide extra help during the school holidays,” he said.

“I have asked officers to prepare some contingency plans should the Government not agree to change their position on free school meals come the Christmas holidays through to the Easter holidays and they will be shared by cabinet colleagues in the next week or 10 days at the most.

“I will then share those with the leaders of the political groups, because I think this is something that it’s quite important we are all signed up to and we have some common purpose on this.”

RELATED: Northumberland County Council rethinking free school meals plans for Christmas holidays

He added: “On the wider issue of food poverty generally in the county, I am going to ask Cllr Wendy Pattison, who leads for us on equality and diversity, to lead some cross-party work so we can have some sensible dialogue and hopefully some clear outcomes to help the need that exists in parts of our communities in Northumberland.”

Following the meeting, the Labour group leader, Cllr Susan Dungworth, said: “We organised a petition and wrote to Cllr Sanderson. We are delighted that he listened and responded positively in yesterday’s meeting.