PARENTS at Raglan Primary School are angry that Monmouthshire County Council are closing the kitchen because they say repairs will be too expensive.

A council spokesman has confirmed that after Easter the school lunches will be provided by the staff from Deri View Primary School canteen in Abergavenny which is 10 miles away.

He said there will be no job losses yet, but they could not rule it out in case the redeployment options were not suitable.

 One parent said: "Our concerns are why have we been given so little notice, without the opportunity to help raise funds to save the kitchen

"Will pre-preparing the food affect its nutritional content and the quality, and indeed safety, of the food .I am very concerned about how the council propose keeping the food warm and, apart from the negative effect this will have on nutrition levels (and taste!), what increased risk is there of the spread of bacteria?"

 She asked: "Will the kitchen at Raglan still be used to serve the food / store and wash utensils, plates and cutlery - if so then surely some repairs will have to take place to make the space safe anyway? 

 Another parent added: "The children are very clued up about eating fresh, local, seasonal food, reducing air miles, free trade, and avoiding processed foods etc , so we should be working towards less processing of their food, sourcing the ingredients locally, growing their own vegetables at the school.

"It seems to be a very short-sighted move on behalf of the council and not really in line with current thinking on improving children's school lunches and keeping them connected to where the food they eat comes from and how it's prepared." 

 A spokesman for the council said it would not be cost effective to bring the school kitchen up to standard because it will cost tens of thousands of pounds. He said the meals prepared at Deri View already travel to other schools and they are kept warm so they are not reheated.

Councillor Andrew Crump, a governor at the school said the governors were told confidentially two weeks ago and the staff were informed last week. He said they had been told there were a number of problems with the kitchen which meant it did not meet modern standards. "In my humble opinion the floor tiles are good but modern legislation says all joint must be sealed. The wooden shutters do not comply and neither do the metal windows."

He said the council plans to build a new primary school in Raglan but failed in its first bid to get Assembly funding and even if their second bid, which has just been submitted, is successful work on the new building will not start until 2012. "It is not economically viable to bring the kitchen up to standard when it has a life span of only two years. The governors were told that the other schools which receive meals from Deri View are very happy with them."

The school, which opened in 1974, is at full capacity with 210 pupils and this winter just under 600 meals a week were being served.

Another parent said he understood that a combie oven, fridge and freezer had been installed last year and there was a new washing machine waiting to be plumbed in.

The council spokesman said these items would be recycled and made use of elsewhere.