By Ian Austen

ian.austen@essnmedia.co.uk

Hopes the council would throw its considerable corporate weight behind the idea of introducing meat free Mondays on menus in schools and council premises were dashed this week.

Vegetarian campaigner Nitin Mehta had been hoping council leader Mike Fisher would give the idea his full support at this week's meeting of the council.

But in response to a question from Labour leader Tony Newman, asking him to champion the cause of vegetarianism, Cllr Fisher was lukewarm.

He said: "We can look at how we might promote vegetarianism but it is a matter of freedom of choice whether our staff or schoolchildren want to eat vegetarian meals.

"I am not prepared to see the choice of people eating meat when they want to eat it taken away from them."

Mr Mehta, founder of the Indian Cultural Centre, in Thornton Heath, said after the meeting: "It was a bit of a disaster really.

"Nobody was going to be forced not to eat meat."

Where the idea had been tried elsewhere in Europe, he explained, it had a snowball effect.

While meat had still been available on menus, the emphasis on a vegetarian menu one day a week had caught on and more people gradually took part.

Mr Mehta added that he had been hoping the council would have made a more positive stance on extolling the benefits of a vegetarian diet both for individuals and the wellbeing of the planet.

He believes that eating meat is the biggest cause of global warming.

Mr Mehta points out that experts say that livestock production makes up 20 per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and the figure could double over the next 40 years.

He said: "There are no councils in this country who have meat-free days and we were hoping Croydon would be progressive.

"We are going to keep working at this."