Ban on Scottish school lunch blog lifted

Six weeks ago, Martha Payne, from Argyll in western Scotland, began taking photos of the uninspiring lunches provided by her school canteen and posting them on her blog, "NeverSeconds".

The website -- which saw Martha rate her lunches on a range of factors including health, taste, and the number of strands of human hair they contained -- rapidly gained a strong following.

One photo showed a pallid-looking cheeseburger, two potato croquettes, three pieces of cucumber and an ice-lolly. Martha gave the meal a health rating of 2/10.

Another typical post, accompanied by a picture of a chicken fajita, read: "I'd really like to know where the chicken comes from so I am going to write to the lady in charge to ask.

"I know it comes from a hen but I'd like to know where the hen lived."

Readers from around the world began emailing snaps of their own canteen lunches to Martha, so they too could be posted.

She used the blog, which she created with the help of her father Dave, to raise money for Mary's Meals, a charity providing food for children in developing countries.

But a final post on Friday read: "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 am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. 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."

Argyll and Bute Council said on Friday that media coverage of the blog -- which included one newspaper article headlined "Time to fire the dinner ladies" -- had left catering staff fearing for their jobs.

"The photographic images uploaded appear to only represent a fraction of the choices available to pupils, so a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen," the authority added.

But just hours later, the council was forced to backtrack after the move sparked a storm of outrage on social networking websites.

"There is no place for censorship in this council," council leader Roddy McCuish said in a statement.

Visits to Martha's websites have soared to over 3.4 million as a result of the controversy.

By 1700 GMT on Friday, she had raised £37,000 ($57,900, 45,800 euros) for Mary's Meals through her page on the JustGiving donations website -- smashing her original target of £7,000.