Almost half of the local authorities in Scotland capitalised on the UK Government Eat Out to Help Out scheme but North Lanarkshire Council wasn’t amongst them.
Of the 32 councils across the country 15 did apply – including neighbouring South Lanarkshire and West Lothian – meaning parents with children there who are paying for school meals will get them for half price on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday throughout August.
Parents in North Lanarkshire who have paid full price for school meals could still be reimbursed as the local authority say it is considering lodging a retrospective application.
The discount only applies to paid for school meals, there is no benefit to councils for those who normally receive free school meals, as they are unable to claim the 50 per cent discount.
The UK Treasury has assigned up to £500 million to fund the scheme with people able to take advantage of the discounts at restaurants in Wishaw and elsewhere across North Lanarkshire.
With the average school meal costing around £3 per day across the country, parents of pupils in the local authority areas taking part in the scheme can potentially save approximately £12 for each child who pays for a meal from the schools starting back until the end of the month.
With pupils only returning to school in North Lanarkshire on August 12 there were a maximum of just eight days on which the scheme would apply during August.
A council spokesperson said: “Our main focus has been on ensuring that all our pupils had a safe return to school and that we were able to successfully restart essential services such as school meals.
“Given the limited availability of resources available to us we decided not to immediately pursue the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which would only have applied in our schools for eight days in August.
“However, it is something which we are now looking into applying for retrospectively.”
