A NEW packed lunch service for West Sussex schools looks like it will be a huge flop when it is launched today.

Hot school meals were axed by West Sussex County Council last year in an attempt to save £500,000 of its budget.

The service is being replaced by packed lunches, which cost £1.20 each. Caterers Gardner Merchant sent out 65,000 leaflets to parents across the county, but just 230 pupils have been signed up for the new scheme.

Parent campaigner Richard Symonds, of Lavington Close, Crawley, said he was not surprised at the news.

Mr Symonds, 46, who wrote to Buckingham Palace when the hot meals were axed, said: "I am not at all surprised by this. What is on offer from Gardner Merchant is nutritionally inadequate.

"I think the only way that something is going to get done is by the direct intervention of the Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett."

Lib Dem councillor Anne Jones, of Burgess Hill North, "I have seen what in on offer in the packed lunches and I am not impressed.

"I do not blame parents for not ordering the meals."

A spokeswoman for West Sussex County Council said she hoped there would be an increase in the take-up.

More than 500 dinner staff were put out of work when caterers Castle View lost the hot meals contract. A legal battle is still continuing over the redundancy bill.

Colin Garnham-Edge, contracts manager for Gardner Merchant in West Sussex, said he was pleased with the response.

The packed lunches were originally planned for children who qualified for free school meals, but later extended to all pupils.

He said: "Even if we had just one parent take up the offer it would have been a success. We are pleased by the response."

But he said he was disappointed that some schools chose not to promote the scheme.

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