NORTH-EAST education authorities are to receive their first portion of a £220m Government payout devised as a recipe for better school dinners.

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) said last night that the region's local education authorities (LEAs) would jointly be dished up almost £1m at the start of the new term - in addition to the normal funding that schools get for meals.

The payments are based on the number of pupils and the number of free school meals provided by each authority.

North Yorkshire's schools get the biggest payout in the region of £325,903, followed by Durham's, which get £292,666.

The extra cash follows a spate of negative headlines for the Government earlier this year after television chef Jamie Oliver slammed the standard and content of meals being served to the nation's youngsters.

The focus of his nationally-acclaimed television series, Jamie's School Dinners, turned to the North-East when Eden Community School in Peterlee, County Durham, came under his scrutiny.

But Jamie found himself preaching to the converted when the east Durham primary school's headteacher, Yvonne Ryle, revealed that she had already decided to cancel the meals provided by Durham LEA and go it alone.

Last night, Mrs Ryle said: "It is good news that more money is on the way, but we will not be changing our opt-out plans, and from September we will be serving our home-cooked food from our own school kitchen."

Keith Mitchell, director of education for Durham County Council, the local education authority, said it provided 28,446 school meals a day at an annual cost of more than £7m.

"Obviously, the greater amounts of extra money we get from the Government, the greater the improvements we can make," he added.

"The money is welcomed but, like Oliver Twist, we will be asking for more."

In 2006/7 and 2007/8, the Government will release an extra £50m a year to authorities nationally.

The remaining £90m will then be given over a three-year period.

A DfES spokesman said: "We will be spending a total of some £220m over the next three years to support nothing less than a transformation in school meals."