Council backs down from plans to ban halal meat in Lancashire schools after legal challenge threat

A council in England has backed down from its plans to ban halal meat from being served in schools after a threat of a legal challenge.

Lancashire County Council initially voted to stop unstunned halal meat being supplied to schools in a vote last October after council Tory leader Cllr Geoff Driver described the practice as “cruel”.

However, the Lancashire Council of Mosques (LCM) claimed the authority had failed to consult adequately on the decision and threatened to take them to judicial review in the High Court.

As a result of the legal threat, the county council wrote to LCM chief executive Abdul Hamid Qureshi, telling him that they will now “consider afresh” and continue to supply halal meat to 27 schools across the county.

They added that the a new consultation on the proposals will now take place before a new vote can take place.

Mr Qureshi welcomed the decision and said he hoped the county council would now drop the proposal altogether.

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He told the Lancashire Telegraph: “We are happy at this move and hope that following the consultation they will continue with the current system for supplying halal meat.”

Cllr John Fillis, deputy leader of the county council Labour group, described the collapse of the proposals as “chaos and incompetence”.