School dinners could soon be off the menu as cost-cutting measure continue to bite at Hampshire County Council.

The council is looking to close its education catering service in March 2026 as HCC continues its desperate bid to plug a funding hole that could rise to £175million or more.

The council suffered a loss of demand for its previously award-winning HC3S services after being forced to increase prices to cover rising food and staff costs.

The council can no longer continue providing a non-statutory in-house service in the long term without making a loss.

A six-week consultation has begun while the council has put forward two options to meet the catering needs of schools and nurseries which still use the service.

The first option is for users to arrange their own catering provision, making the most of an active and well-established private sector market of school food providers.

The second is to provide a managed outsource of the service that schools and nurseries can buy into, that would see HCC procure and manage supply on the behalf of users.

“The financial challenges we are facing mean that our priority must now be the provision of statutory services,” said a spokesperson for HCC.

“With the considerable cost increases we are facing, which remain unmatched by an equivalent increase in the funding received directly by schools, we must regrettably consider closing this discretionary service.”

“However, we will continue to lobby Government for additional funding for schools to provide good quality meals,” added the spokesperson.

The consultation runs until October 11 and also seeks feedback on a proposal to cease all services relating to the maintenance of catering equipment owned by its customers.

Feedback from the consultation, and a recommended way forward, will be presented for consideration at D-Day meeting in November.