A VICTORY dance was held around the fountain at the front of the town hall by campaigners after Cllr Clyde Loakes' unexpected climbdown on school meals.

About 200 people, carrying placards and banging pots and pans, marched from Walthamstow town square to the town hall, in Forest Road, to demand that the council continues to subsidise the school meals service.

According to Unison, when the protesters arrived at the town hall, the union's branch secretary Dave Knight and three catering staff were invited in to meet Cllr Loakes.

But after demands from the protestors, Cllr Loakes and deputy council leader Cllr Keith Rayner came out to face the crowd, where they pledged to keep the subsidy for one more year.

Organisers of the march, Unison and National Union of Teachers (NUT), said that they will now be looking to ensure that the council keeps its pledge to subsidise the service and to persuade the ten opt-out schools to rejoin the school meals service.

NUT Waltham Forest deputy secretary Linda Taaffe said: "We have won and we are really really please we have pulled it off.

"But we have to keep the campaign high-profile, every victory is short-lived and we will have to fight again."

Most of the schools and colleges in the borough currently have their meals provided by Waltham Forest Catering Service (WFCS).

Headteachers had been told that from next April the council would no longer be subsidising the service, which is making a loss.

This meant that schools would have to find a contractor or run their kitchens by themselves, and that they would be fully liable for the costs.

A fourth option was later put forward in which WFCS would remain, but only if schools collectively decided to share the full financial risk.

But following a public campaign organised by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Unison, the council has backed down.

Council leader Clyde Loakes and his deputy Keith Rayner told a rally at the town hall last Thursday that the council has now agreed to subsidise the service for one more year, until March 2009. But schools will also continue to pay extra costs towards the subsidy as well.

Cabinet member for children and young people, Cllr Chris Robbins, said: "It is really important that our children continue to enjoy a hot and healthy meal at school each day.

"What we are doing is working with schools to ensure children are offered a nutritionally balanced hot meal at lunchtimes, that more children take up school meals and that our dinner ladies continue to keep serving them."

The council has also said that it will be trying to encourage the ten schools which have already opted out of using WFCS to return to it.