Free school meals: Another council finds money for holidays

Another local authority in Wales has agreed to pay for free school meals during the summer holidays from its own funds.

The Welsh government cut funding off in June, saying it had no money and the holiday scheme had been time-limited.

The north west Wales authority Gwynedd is spending £316,000 of its own budget to give parents cash over the holiday.

Blaenau Gwent also formally decided to make payments to parents on Thursday.

Earlier in the week BBC Wales reported that Blaenau Gwent, Powys and Caerphilly were planning to continue school meal schemes.

Council leaders have complained about the short notice of the Welsh government's decision to cease funding, taken weeks before the school term ended.

Last weekend First Minister Mark Drakeford suggested it was too late for this holiday for the government to U-turn.

Several of the councils involved made their decisions to fund payments to parents in the last week of the school term.

A report from the Plaid Cymru-run council's cabinet member for education, Beca Brown, emphasised that the decision "is relevant to this holiday only, and therefore in response to the fact that the decision of the Welsh government was late in the day and that it is not possible for families to forward plan appropriately as a result".

It said 84% of parents and guardians who are eligible to receive free school meals have registered to receive a payment.

At the last Whitsun holiday cash worth £3.90 a day was made to parents or guardians of around 2,700 pupils in the county.

• Three councils set to fund school holiday meals

• Rising food prices 'harming school meals quality'

• No free school meals in summer holidays - Drakeford

Blaenau Gwent Council also signed off its plans on Thursday, spending £300,000.

The decision was approved unanimously at a meeting of the authority, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Labour council leader Steve Thomas said: "We have been reeling from the cost of living, energy costs inflation and everything over the last year as are the Welsh government."

He explained that strong arguments had been put to the Welsh government to continue the funding but "they found they couldn't fund it".

Mr Thomas said: "There was some brinkmanship, as I would rather them (the Welsh government) fund this than us."

Deputy leader of the Independent group Wayne Hodgins said: "We are on the ground here and see the struggles and cost of living pressures that families face."

He added that the Welsh government had heaped pressure onto local authorities "depleted resources" by stopping the funding.

In a previous statement the Welsh government said: "This summer, a wide range of holiday projects will be available across Wales, including the Food and Fun scheme, which we fund and will be available in all 22 local authority areas for the first time.

"We continue to support families through the cost of living crisis and have invested more than £3.3bn in programmes and schemes which put money back into people's pockets."