SCHOOL dinners in Preston are unsatisfactory and require speedy improvement - or the caterers face the sack.

Lancashire County Council has ordered BET Catering Services - with whom they have a £2 million contract to provide more than a million meals to primary schools and 695,000 to secondary schools - to make changes by the end of the summer term or lose the deal.

The decision comes after a number of complaints - plus spot checks at schools by the county's own monitoring service - revealed an inadequate service.

County Councillor Louise Ellman, the leader of Lancashire County Council said: "I am extremely concerned that BCS's performance in several areas of the county is still unsatisfactory.

"Our complaints are a combination of problems with the size of portions, quality of the foods served and the conditions. It is vital that children receive fully nutritional school meals. BCS's performance will be monitored and if it does not improve in Preston by the end of the summer term the contract will be terminated."

In a statement from BCS they responded by saying that they were concerned and surprised with the discovery:

"The BCS and it's excellent kitchen staff are very proud of the level of service provided.

"While BCS's objective is to work closely with Lancashire County Council and to jointly improve the service, BCS believe that the default notice issued is totally unjustified and is based on inaccurate Council monitoring .

"The staff are extremely upset and annoyed with the council's current monitoring system and have raised concerns over how unfair it is."

BET was awarded the contract in 1994. It is worth £16 million across the county and provides for almost 17 million school meals.

It has been revealed that improvements are also required in Blackpool, Fylde, West Lancashire, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.

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