YOUNGSTERS at an Oxfordshire primary school could finally be able to tuck into their hot dinners in a dining hall after the Prime Minister came to their aid.

Pupils of Clanfield CofE Primary School, near Bampton, have had their free school meals delivered by taxi and served in classrooms since September 2014, when the Government introduced the policy.

Now staff hope Oxfordshire County Council will approve plans for new dining and kitchen facilities, after they wrote to Witney MP David Cameron to ask for help.

The county council applied for funding to pay for the new facilities last year but was initially refused. After the school wrote to Mr Cameron, the Department for Education (DfE) later agreed to provide extra cash.

Headteacher Robin Smith said the new hall would save more than £10,000 being spent on taxis to bring the meals from a partner school in Burford. He added: “The introduction of free school meals was not really thought through enough and it meant a lot of schools in leafy areas like ours were left in a difficult position, because we only have a finite budget.

“We’ve been serving the food in our classrooms and that is not ideal because it means it can smell sometimes throughout the rest of the afternoon – and you inevitably end up finding peas lying around if you serve those too.

“It will be great to finally get the facilities we need and there is a nice social aspect to it as well. We should be able to use the dining hall for assemblies too, which means we will be able to bring the whole school together. We will lose some playground space, but there are ways to get around that.”

According to the county council, about 20 schools in Oxfordshire still do not have their own kitchens and get their food delivered from elsewhere.

The local authority has been given an extra £1.1m by the DfE to help solve the problem, but about half of this is expected to be spent on the kitchen and hall at Clanfield as well as at Woodstock Primary School.

A council spokesman added: “The remainder will be used to identify practical solutions at other schools to help increase the take-up of free school meals.”

Mr Smith said the plans at Clanfield have been going through the planning process for the last eight months, but would be considered by a committee of county councillors on Monday.

A spokesperson for the PM said: “ Mr Cameron understood the school’s concerns and the extra pressure being put on the school staff and facilities by the current arrangement. He looks forward to hearing the outcome of the meeting on Monday.”