A BURNLEY school's decision to sign up to a books for tokens scheme run by food giant Nestle has been described by a national campaign group as "regrettable".

Habergham High School is encouraging parents to collect the tokens on packets of Nestle cereal to boost the books in the school library.

But the organiser of a group which campaigns against the Swiss company has described the school's decision to take part as "unfortunate" and called on the headteacher to rethink the move.

Patti Rundall, policy director at Baby Milk Action said: "This is really unfortunate.

"I do understand the dilemma of headteachers in that they have to balance the books, but they must think long-term about child health in the wider context. Nestle is a company that is violating child rights in infant feeding and promotes foods which cause obesity.

"This is not something we want to see connected to fund-raising. This is regrettable."

Baby Milk Action, based in Cambridge, is a non-profit organisation which aims to end the suffering caused by inappropriate infant feeding.

The group is opposed to Nestle because they claim the company markets breastmilk substitutes in the developing world which leads to malnourished babies.

The World Health Organisation estimates 1.5million infants around the world die every year because they are not breastfed.

The school made the call for parents to send in the cereal tokens in the weekly school news bulletin.

Headteacher Stuart Smith, was today unavailable for comment.