Parents are annoyed the price of school dinners has rocketed five times the rate of inflation despite millions of pounds of Government investment.

Families in Brighton and Hove are being asked to pay 15p extra on school meals, taking the total cost to £1.65 per meal.

This is a rise of ten per cent, five times higher than the current rate of inflation of about two per cent, and despite the Government allocating £220 million to pay for staff training, equipment and raw ingredients nationwide.

Beth Abbott, whose son Freddie has school dinners at St Andrew's School in Hove, said: "We were simply told the price was going up, without any explanation.

"As someone who likes to know how her pennies are being spent it's very annoying. What's happened to all the Government money that means we have to pay so much more?"

Bob Howitt who, together with his wife Sylvie, campaigned for better school dinners at St Andrew's last year, said he thought the Government had not planned its budget properly.

He said: "School meals was a political hot potato last year with Jamie Oliver and I think the Government rushed forward a budget.

"What we are seeing now is the budget being eroded by realities they didn't account for, such as minimum wage and gas price increases.

"For some people 15p extra will mean they can no longer afford school meals.

"It adds up, especially if you have two or three children."

A spokesman from Brighton and Hove City Council said: "The price of ingredients when we moved to the healthier primary schools menus went from 41p to almost 60p and the extra Government money has been targeted to cover this.

"The latest increase is an annual one taking into account inflation.

"A further factor is that wages have had to increase beyond inflation for a large number of kitchen staff as they have become more skilled in order to cook more food in-house."

A spokeswoman for catering company Scolarest, which provides meals for almost all primary and senior schools in Brighton and Hove, said: "Across about 50 per cent of our primary school estate we have seen clients put additional funding into meals and invest, like Brighton, in new menus.

"These include extra fresh fruit and vegetables and meet the Government's standards which come into force in September."

In East Sussex, parents pay £1.42 for primary school meals by catering company Initial and there are no planned price rises.