CAMPAIGNERS who have spent the best part of a year fighting to reinstate hot school meals thought they had seen it all.

The small huddle of battle-weary protesters outside West Sussex County Council headquarters in Chichester arranged their line of banners and waited for their targets.

Silver salvers

At best, they hoped to increase the pressure on councillors who voted to axe the meals in primary schools last year with a peaceful protest.

But even they were gobsmacked by the reaction of catering staff and councillors as they raised their placards just after midday.

First, caterers at County Hall strode past the line of protest banners carrying a hot meal under silver salvers.

Then councillors arrived to tuck into a piping-hot beef dish served on a bed of rice.

That was followed by Victorian tart and a cheeseboard with a choice of red or white Cuvee Etoile with a 1998 vintage.

Parents who were at the demonstration were furious at the reaction of the councillors following months of protest on the issue.

Angry mum Karina Lee-Edmunds said: "I'm absolutely disgusted. I would just love to go in there and swap it all for the cold packed lunches they are providing in the schools.

"My little girl comes home absolutely starving."

Mrs Lee-Edmunds, 31, took her six-year-old daughter, Paige, to the protest.

Paige, a pupil at The Meads Primary School in East Grinstead said: "School lunches make me feel a bit cold."

Only half a dozen protesters took part in the demonstration, but they travelled from as far away as Mid-Sussex to make their views known as the 71 members of the council and senior officers adjourned for lunch.

Among the councillors who went for the hot meal was Lib-Dem Brian Hall who is a leading critic of the decision to axe cooked meals and runs a protest website. But he said he had no "personal qualms" about eating the meal.

Lethargic

He said: "I want exactly the same right I am enjoying to be extended to children as well. By having a hot meal, councillors will be better able to do their work and the same rights should be given to children.

"I will continue to campaign on this issue for as long as I am a councillor."

Burgess Hill Town Councillor Anne Jones, who took part in the demonstration, said: "The meal for the councillors smelled gorgeous and they will not be falling asleep or becoming lethargic which is what many teachers are reporting because children are hungry."

But Tory councillors have made it clear the decision to scrap hot meals to save £500,000 will not be reversed.

Many school kitchens have already been converted into teaching areas.

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