Councillor Rachel Fryer’s statement that the Conser-vative administration of Brighton and Hove City Council “thinks the council has no responsibility for our young people” is an outrageous slur (Letters, July 1).

As chairman of the children and young people’s scrutiny committee to which Coun Fryer refers, I am disappointed she has chosen to politicise an issue which we had agreed, at that meeting, to look into further.

I would also like to clarify a few of the quite legitimate concerns about free school meals which were raised.

Firstly, the council already spends more than £1 million a year providing healthy, free school meals for children from low-income families and we are working very hard to increase uptake.

However, we have estimated that giving free school meals to all of Brighton and Hove’s schoolchildren would cost about £10 million.

Perhaps the Greens would like to tell our council taxpayers exactly how they would fund this, given that a 1% increase in council tax raises approximately £1 million.

Secondly, are the Greens really suggesting we should remove the choice from parents of what their children eat at school?

Many parents choose to give their children packed lunches so they can control what goes in them. They invariably know what is best for their children and this may not be the school meal option that is available.

In addition, some parents also give children a packed lunch so they can have a main family meal in the evening. This is very important in terms of family cohesion.

Coun Fryer also ought to get her facts right – roughly one in six children in our city are obese at the age of 11, not one in three as she claims.

One obese child is one too many but it is irresponsible of her to exaggerate the problem.

I think the Green Party has a few questions to answer in relation to the city’s children.

For example, can it explain why it opposed, at every turn, the new Academy school at Falmer which will bring massive benefit to some of our most deprived children?

Perhaps it could also expand on why it would abolish a whole sector of some of the country’s most successful schools – faith schools – were they ever to get into power?

Councillor Averil Older
Conservative councillor for Central Hove ward
Brighton and Hove City Council