Beef could soon be returning to school menus after the lifting of the ban was backed by one of the county council's most powerful committees, writes Nick Evans.

At a meeting of the strategy and resources committee on Tuesday, members voted for the return of beef. The issue will now go before full council.

Beef was banned from schools and children's homes two years ago at the height of the BSE crisis. A spokesman for the county council's education department said: "It now seems more rather than less likely that beef will be returning to our schools and this vote confirms the view of the education committee.

"It is important to remember that there will always be a non-meat option on school menus, whether beef comes back or not. It's all about free choice. No one is being forced to eat beef." This week's vote follows last month's decision by the county council's education committee to recommend beef be put back on menus from the start of the new school year in September.

That vote still has to be approved by the full county council when it meets on May 11. If there are significant objections from councillors or schools' governing bodies then the issue will go back to the education committee in June.

Story date: Friday 23 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.