Statement from the Council (via bbc http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800)

Argyll and Bute Council claimed media coverage of the blog had led catering staff to fear for their jobs.

It added: “The council has directly avoided any criticism of anyone involved in the ‘never seconds’ blog for obvious reasons despite a strongly-held view that the information presented in it misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils.

“However this escalation means we had to act to protect staff from the distress and harm it was causing.

“In particular, the photographic images uploaded appear to only represent a fraction of the choices available to pupils, so a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen.

“There have been discussions between senior council staff and Martha’s father however, despite an acknowledgement that the media coverage has produced these unwarranted attacks, he intimated that he would continue with the blog.

“The council has had no complaints for the last two years about the quality of school meals other than one from the Payne family received on 6 June and there have been no changes to the service on offer since the introduction of the blog.”

so basically, they felt she was showing them in a poor light.

[edit] why didn’t they just start their own blog showing all the options pupils have?

MSP – it looks like you might be on to a winner – it seems the reasons they’ve given for banning the photography of school dinners by this pupil may not be lawful 🙂

“Leader of @ArgyllandBute council ends #neverseconds camera ban live”

on Radio 4 World at One.

Interesting footnote there,

“Thanks to this fantastic support, Martha has now raised enough money to build a kitchen in Malawi for children”

Clearly, the council need to stop this sort of behaviour immediately.

The ban has already been lifted, but it’s not been for nothing…

Publicity caused by the ban helped her smash through her £7,000 target – with total pledges of more than £16,000 being made by Friday lunchtime.

The total stood at only about £2,000 on Thursday evening.

Would it be ok if she drew pictures of the meals instead? Ideally using crayons.

I’d thought this, too – probably easier to recognise the foodstuffs than the defendants in Court sketches – the one of Rebecca Brooks and co. at Leveson looked more like Carol Decker meets the Mitchell brothers. Anyway, moot point now that the Council has been introduced to the Streisand effect.

Interesting press release from the council leader.

http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/news/2012/jun/statement-school-meals-argyll-and-bute-council

Published Date:
15 Jun 2012 – 10:53

Updated: 14:19 – 15 June 2012

Statement from Cllr Roddy McCuish, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council

“There is no place for censorship in this Council and never will be whilst I am leader. I have advised senior officers that this Administration intends to clarify the Council’s policy position in regard to taking photos in schools. I have therefore requested senior officials to consider immediately withdrawing the ban on pictures from the school dining hall until a report can be considered by Elected Members. This will allow the continuation of the “Neverseconds” blog written by an enterprising and imaginative pupil, Martha Payne which has also raised lots of money for charity.

But we all must also accept that there is absolutely no place for the type of inaccurate and abusive attack on our catering and dining hall staff, such as we saw in one newspaper yesterday which considerably inflamed the situation. That, of course, was not the fault of the blog, but of the paper.

We need to find a united way forward so I am going to bring together our catering staff, the pupils, councillors and council officials – to ensure that the council continues to provide healthy, nutrious and attractive school meals. That “School Meals Summit” will take place later this summer.

I will also meet Martha and her father as soon as I can, along with our lead councillor on Education, Michael Breslin to seek her continued engagement, along with lots of other pupils, in helping the council to get this issue right. By so doing Martha Payne and her friends will have had a strong and lasting influence not just on school meals, but on the whole of Argyll & Bute.”

This statement supersedes all other council statements on the matter already issued.

Re: Cougar’s post, ‘council shows common sense’ shocker!

Publicity caused by the ban helped her smash through her £7,000 target – with total pledges of more than £16,000 being made by Friday lunchtime.

The total stood at only about £2,000 on Thursday evening.
[cynical]They were in it together[/cynical] 8)

Worth reading this: always worth remembering there’s more than one side to every story…

To give the DR their due I’m not sure their story is asking for dinner ladies’ heads. My interpretation here is some over-sensitive canteen staff got upset about a story and the Council over-reacted…

Daily Record current story

Background to the original story

Here’s an interesting thing.

Before the press statement above, A&B issued another one. Which they then overwrote.

Fortunately, due to the power of the Internets, you can read the original here.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/hrom1r

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLJ5qNqCO14[/video]

One last comment here. Worth a read.

http://ashinyworld.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/communications-void.html