As mums we want to ensure our kids get a healthy lunch in school, with many of us going out of our way to make them a packed lunch.

 

However, this may come to an end if Caerphilly council in South Wales have their way.

 

The council is proposing every primary school is charged £2,200 a year for disposing the waste created by pupils eating their own sandwiches.

 

A charge that former council leader Lindsay Whittle believes will be passed down to parents to pay. She also believes it may lead to schools banning pupils from bringing in their own sandwiches.

 

“School budgets are already under pressure, so it seems likely that this charge will be passed on to parents by many schools or pupils even banned from bringing lunches in,” she told the Mirror.

 

"This is a daft idea and should be abandoned now – we’ve had the Tories’ bedroom tax and pasty tax, now the Labour-run council wants to impose the sandwich tax. It’s not on.”

 

However while the council has said that the charge will not be passed down to parents, they did admit that it may lead schools to ban kids from bringing in their own sandwich.

 

 

“Schools may choose to make their own arrangements for setting out and clearing away sandwich places, in which case the catering service will be able to reduce staffing hours and still realise the saving identified. This proposal could lead to pupils losing the option of bringing sandwiches meals to school and have the potential to increase school lunch take-up.”

 

A spokesperson for the council said: “This is one of a number of proposals put forward for consideration as the council looks to make in excess of £9m savings for 2016-17."

 

"It is important to emphasise that in setting the budget for 2016-17, the council has made a commitment to meeting the schools pledge, which will in fact see an additional cash growth of £1.9m for county borough schools."

 

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