A SCHOOL in Burnley which took its campaign for a new kitchen right to the top at Westminster has unveiled plans for a £250,000 extension.

Wellfield Church School has never had its own canteen but all that is set to change.

Proposals have been lodged with the borough council for a kitchen to the north-west of the Anglican and Methodist primary, after securing support from Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle.

Since the start of the September term Wellfield’s infants have been enjoying hot meals, under the government’s universal free school dinners initiative.

But the food has been brought in from Hameldon Community College while staff and governors await planning permission for their new venture.

Headteacher Janet Pay even travelled to London, to met with education minister David Laws, to press home Wellfield’s case, after the borough’s MP intervened.

Mrs Pay said: “It has made an impact on the children already, as with a hot dinner inside them they have been able to concentrate better in the afternoon.”

Currently the scheme has been rolled out to the infants department and it is hoped that the meals, for a small fee, will be available to juniors after the half-term holidays.

The funding for the work will come from both Lancashire County Council’s allocation, for the programme, and Blackburn Diocese. It has been acknowledged that the county education service has offered an increased subsidy as £3million was only provided for the whole of Lancashire.

Mr Birtwistle who raised Wellfield’s plight in Parliament, said: “There was a lot of controversy but it’s brilliant that this school is now set to benefit from a new kitchen.”