A COUNCIL with the largest number of small schools in the country says it may be forced to use its own resources to maintain the Government’s universal free school meals initiative.

North Yorkshire County Council said its school meals service, North Yorkshire County Caterers, had already spent more than £660,000 from its own reserves to ensure equipment was in place – including extra cutlery, hot trolleys, ovens and additional refrigeration – to provide the service.

The authority, which is facing having to make £167m of savings, said before launching the scheme it carried out extensive work with schools to meet the requirement to deliver free meals to all children aged seven and under at the start of the school year.

The authority has received £1,269,049, and a further £184,466 for Voluntary Aided schools from the Government to introduce the policy.

Extra grants were allocated to cover the cost of free school meals at a flat rate per pupil.

The authority said the Government funding would build three kitchens and the county had 29 schools without a kitchen.

Councillor Arthur Barker, executive member for schools, said: “We must wait to see how the policy works out in practice as the year progresses, and what the long-term financial implications will be for our schools.

“But it is likely that we, as a local authority, will have to dig into our own limited capital resources in future to ensure all of our school kitchens can cope in the longer run."