A mother has expressed anger at a decision by Halwill Primary School to remove hot meals from the lunch menu.

But the school says the move was forced on it beause of costs.

Julie Luckhurst's son Matt attends the school, and her daughter will start there in September. On March 28, two days before the end of spring term, Matt brought home a letter informing Julie that after the Easter holidays, the school will no longer provide a hot meal option at lunch.

She said: 'There has been no consultation with parents at all. I was absolutely furious when I saw the letter. This is the first information on a major change two days before the end of term, so I think this is poor.

'It's not the right decision for children, as how can hungry children be expected to learn? It is like a car, you put the wrong fuel in and the performance drops.

'As a working mum, I don't pick my son up until 6pm, so he probably won't eat until 6.30pm or 7pm. That is too late for a six-year-old.

'I will give packed lunches for my children but they would be better off with a hot meal. I am extremely annoyed.'

The school's chair of governors Mark Ley said: 'From our perspective, the reason why we had to decide to take hot meals off the menu was because we could no longer afford them.

'It came down to a simple choice of educating the children or providing hot food. It's very disappointing for everyone on the governing body. It's just as disappointing for us as it is for parents.

'Devon Country privatised the school meals provision from September 2011 and, ever since then, many smaller schools have had to subsidise school dinners.

'The contract with the county's meals provider was up for renewal at the end of March and we had to decide whether to enter into a three-year contract or close the kitchen now.  

'We were unable to set a balanced budget for the coming year if we kept the kitchen open without having to lose teaching or support staff.

'We feel we have been backed into a corner and there has been no other choice.

'In terms of direct consultation with parents, we had a taster day in the school last half-term, which was, sadly, not particularly well supported.

'Over the last year we have tried to raise parents' awareness in the facilities and to encourage everyone to have hot meals, but with only 20 per cent of our pupils having school meals, this just hasn't happened.'