Martha Payne's school dinner blog banned by local council
Published Jun 15 2012, 10:30 BST | By Tom Eames
A highly-successful blog by a 9-year-old schoolgirl has been banned by a local council.Martha Payne's blog NeverSeconds charts her school dinners each week, and has reached over 2 million hits worldwide and raised thousands of pounds for charity.
She had received praise for her campaign for a more healthy food choice at schools, with Jamie Oliver describing her as a "clever girl".
However, despite support from her school itself, the Argyll and Bute Council have decided to ban the seven-week-old blog due to negative publicity.
© Rex Features
Celebrity chef Nick Nairn slammed the "incredibly short-sighted" decision, while it has been met with uproar among the blog's fans online, and has become a trending topic on Twitter this morning (June 15).
Payne wrote on her latest post, named 'Goodbye': "This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office.
"I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today. I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos."
She added: "I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I'll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don't think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary's Meals either."
"Martha's school have been brilliant and supportive from the beginning and I'd like to thank them all.
"I contacted Argyll and Bute Council when Martha told me what happened at school today and they told me it was their decision to ban Martha's photography.
"It is a shame that a blog that today went through 2 million hits, which has inspired debates at home and abroad and raised nearly £2,000 for charity, is forced to end."
The school's teachers allowed Martha Payne to take photos of her £2 lunches, in order to post them on her blog under her 'Food-o-meter'.
Jamie Oliver had said of the blog: "Shocking but inspirational blog. Keep going. Big love from Jamie x"
A spokesperson for the council has yet to release a full statement regarding the ban.
Its back up now they relented and are allowing her to take photos of her food again,
June 15th 2012 at 6:57pm
You can say what ever you like in this so say free speech society as long as you don?t criticize your local council or Government who are only giving the population what they want while in their 5 year dictatorships.
June 15th 2012 at 11:49am(+3 likes)
My council (south tyneside) spent thousands of our pounds taking twitter to court in order to gag someone who was spilling their secrets on twitter, can't get our streets cleaned up or houses fixed and filled but god help anyone who criticizes them.
June 15th 2012 at 6:35pm
If she is paying for the meal then how can they ban her from rating and photographing it, typical bully boy tactics from a council... she should be applauded for how well written and put together her blog is. If this happened to one of my kids I'd be furious.
June 15th 2012 at 11:11am(+4 likes)