POWYS will have the most expensive school meals in the UK, after the county council's board learned the catering service had overspent by £400,000.
The cost of a hot meal in the county's schools will rise to £1.80 in April and £1.90 in September, following a report to the board by Cllr Geraint Hopkins, portfolio holder for municipal and operational services.
Council officer, Peter Marrs sai
d: "We are already the most expensive in Wales and if we put them up again as is proposed, the cost of our meal will be the most expensive in the UK.
"If meal take-up goes down and the price of food continues to rise, we will go back into deficit."
The report says the overspend was expected to be around £100,000, and it was 'extremely disappointing' the figure was four times this 'for reasons beyond the catering service's control'.
The report explained the reasons for the overspend included significant increases in costs of provisions and further increases forecast; salary costs following the recent pay award; and a reduction in sales to the value of £200,000.
Head of legal services, Jeremy Patterson, said: "We have the lowest production costs in Wales. If the council wants to keep its school meals, it is going to have to find the money somewhere or in six months time we might have to wind up the service anyway."
Members agreed to the proposal, after Cllr Wynne Jones said suppliers from Powys should not be abandoned.
Cllr Jones said there had been a 27 per cent increase in the price of pork and a 22 per cent increase in the price of beef in the last year.
The full article contains 292 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
