PUPILS at Lawn Junior School, who have gone without hot school meals for most of the term, are to be served cold sandwiches for their Christmas dinner.

Hot dinners were originally suspended in September after a gas leak forced the school kitchen to close.

A row between the school and Swindon Council about who should foot the bill dragged on for several weeks, during which time pupils had to put up with cold packed lunches.

Although the problem has been fixed and the bill settled, the school has decided to keep the kitchen closed permanently.

The school is now looking to hire an outside contractor to deliver meals to the school.

But this will come too late for the school's Christmas celebrations on Tuesday.

Youngsters who were looking forward to a plate of hot turkey, roast potatoes and vegetables will have to make do with cold snacks instead.

"No hot meal is being provided for Christmas dinner," headteacher Chris Brown said. "It won't be quite the same but everyone is aware of the situation and we'll be making the most of it."

He added that the school will be providing Christmas crackers and giving out presents,

He said the decision to end in-house preparation of hot meals was made partly to make better use of the space, and partly because maintaining the kitchen had become too much of a financial liability.

For a long time Swindon Services, the direct services arm of Swindon Council, pooled resources to pay for all school kitchens' upkeep.

But, since 2000, money given to schools to provide meals has also had to cover repairs for individual schools' kitchen equipment, a change that is increasingly prompting schools to look again at their provision.

"Our kitchen is not open at the moment and it is unlikely to open," said Mr Brown.

"I can foresee something else going wrong with the equipment and having to take money from somewhere else to pay for repairs.

"Children who don't eat school dinners would then be subsidising those who do."

Mr Brown said there was no animosity between the school and the council and he understood its position.

"As the provider they're not going to say they will repair any problem that happens in the kitchen," he said.

Mr Brown said the change would only affect a minority of pupils.

Only 16 out of 234 pupils currently have school dinners. The rest bring packed lunches from home. It is a trend that is reflected across the borough.

Covingham Park Junior School closed its kitchen in September this year because only a handful of its 226 pupils were choosing to eat hot school meals.

The school now pays Swindon Services to deliver hot meals for 20 pupils every day. Swindon Services does the same for 25 schools across the borough.

Andy Tate