A COUNCIL has withdrawn its threat to take away a £2 million school meals contract from a controversial catering firm.

Lancashire County Council had warned BET Catering Services to improve standards or risk losing the valuable contract.

The council said it was unhappy with the firm changing menus, supplying small food portions and general quality of meals in Preston schools.

And the council also warned it was closely monitoring the quality of service in Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley, Blackpool and the Fylde areas. But a council spokeswoman said: "The company has achieved sufficient improvement in service delivery to avoid both the termination of the contract in the Preston area and the serving of any other notices in respect of the other three areas.

"The position of all contract areas will continue to be monitored closely and kept under review."

BET spokeswoman Michelle Oliver said: "The company is delighted that Lancashire County Council has recognised all the effort and hard work put in by all the staff in Lancashire.

"We will continue to provide a quality school meals service to the children of Lancashire for September term."

The firm was recently taken over by pest control giant Rentokil and employs 3,000 people in the county.

It narrowly avoided strike action in May after cutting staff pay and hours.

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