What a day!

Within two hours of sending the SFM Petition update to supporters, the officer in charge of school meals sent the following:

'It seems that you have asked parents to bombard Cllr Eady and I with emails. Please could you pass on the attached message to them all and ask them to refrain from sending us further emails? Many thanks.'

I have since respectfully pointed out:

'If you would like me to act on behalf of the LA, I will certainly pass on your email as requested.  I don't, however, feel I can ask them not to email you, as they are parents and residents of the borough and are entitled to be heard.  I am sure you will respect this.'

Over the past two years I have enjoyed a good professional relationship with Matthew Paul and I hope to continue this, so as he has requested, here is his message:

All schools in Richmond Borough offer a hot meals service. Most – i.e. 35 out of 41 – of the primary schools are within the Council’s central contract with Sodexo, which is scheduled to run until July 2011, with the option of an extension until July 2013. The other six schools each have their own separate contracts with hot meals providers. All meals offered by Sodexo and the other providers full conform to the Government’s minimum nutritional standards.

 

We are well aware of the importance of improving the school lunches. Our long-term aim is for locally-sourced, reasonably-priced food to be cooked from fresh within all our schools, however we are not yet in a position to move to a cooked-from-fresh meals service in all our schools, as the kitchens in many cases are not suitable and would require major capital investment. At the moment, and for the foreseeable future, the bulk of the Council’s capital will be spent on enabling the expansion of primary schools to meet the massive increase in demand for reception class places. Where those expansions are happening – please see our Consultation on Primary Expansions Strategy – we will be looking to expand the kitchens accordingly.

 

I have met with Stephanie several times over the past two years and remain in email contact with her. We share Stephanie’s aims, but we do not, as yet, have the funding in place to undertake the capital investment that would be needed to realise those aims.

 

I hope that clarifies the situation for you.

 

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Paul 
Deputy Head of Commissioning, Delivery & Service Improvement
Children's Services & Culture / LB Richmond upon Thames / Regal House / London Road / Twickenham / TW1 3QB

Tel: 020 8891 7588 / Mobile: 07946 890631 / Fax: 020 8891 7714 / Email: m.paul@richmond.gov.uk / Web: www.richmond.gov.uk