A SCHOOL meals price hike of more than ten per cent has been branded "ridiculous" by Selby councillors.

North Yorkshire County Council has announced an inflation-busting increase in the price of primary school meals from September.

The rise will hit school children in Ryedale, Hambleton, Selby and elsewhere in North Yorkshire.

Meals in the county are set to rocket from £1.62 to £1.80 - an 11 per cent hike. This is on top of a 5.2 per cent price increase last year.

Last week The Press reported how school meals within the City of York Council area could rise to up to £2.10.

Coun Steve Shaw-Wright, who represents Barlby on the county council and Selby North ward on the district council, said the North Yorkshire proposal was "ridiculous".

He said: "So much so that we've asked for the decision to be reviewed by the county council's scrutiny committee.

"At a time when we're supposed to be increasing healthy eating - which the council is doing - to increase the prices by 11 per cent, on top of a 5.2 per cent increase last year, is crazy. It's not justifiable."

He said the increase would hit middle-income families, who did not benefit from free school meals, the hardest.

Coun Shaw-Wright said the price increase was a result of the county council not increasing council tax sufficiently.

Coun John Watson, the county's executive member for Children And Young People's Services, defended the hike.

He said under the proposal - yet to be ratified by full council - school meals in North Yorkshire would still be considerably cheaper than those in comparable counties, with a primary school meal in Northumberland costing £1.95 a day.

He said the increase was mainly to cover a pay rise for many of the county's catering staff, which resulted from a national job evaluation exercise earlier this year. He said: "I regret that we are obliged to increase the price by more than the rate of inflation.

"But as a result of the nationally-imposed job evaluation process, catering staff have been awarded a well-deserved pay rise.