pounds 20M JAMIE SERVES TV DINNERS COUNCIL WITH A pounds 40,000 BILL

MILLIONAIRE celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has landed the struggling council which hosted his School Dinners TV series with a bill for pounds 40,000.

Greenwich local authority had to pay for four extra trained chefs hired by Jamie - and officials from the public services union Unison say the bill could even lead to staff CUTS in the kitchens that he cooked in.

Jamie, who is worth pounds 20million, has sold almost 600,000 copies of Jamie's Dinners, the book on healthy family eating which he launched on of the back of the hit show last October. The series also helped make his company Sweet as Candy more than pounds 7m last year and helped secure him another pounds 1m contract with supermarket giant Sainsbury's.

But while the popular chef has raked in the cash, Greenwich Council has not received a single penny from the programme.

One local councillor said he was "disappointed" that Jamie Oliver had charged pounds 40,000 - and urged him to pay the money back. Ian Gerrard, Liberal Democrat education spokesman in the South London borough, said: "It's a shame that Jamie Oliver has not been minded to refund some of the money he made to the council. I would urge him to. At this stage, that would be the right thing to do."

"It was disappointing, really, in as much as we would hope that this was something philanthropic - that's certainly how it came over in the television programme."

The pounds 40,000 bill comes amid fears that local authorities across the country will not be able to afford the Government's healthy meals initiative - which was prompted by Jamie's TV expose.

Hard-pressed kitchen staff at places like Kidbrooke School, near Greenwich - where Jamie was filmed in memorable confrontations with head chef Nora Sands - are concerned that pounds 280m of Government cash pledged to them after the show may be swallowed up elsewhere.

Onay Kasab, Unison's Greenwich branch manager, said the money spent on the star's chefs could mean cutbacks. He said: "The council did not make a penny out of the show, as Jamie's company owns the copyright. Obviously he did make a lot of money out of the programme.

"While people think it's a great initiative- with the issue of the cash there's a bit of disappointment. We are now expecting the council to propose cuts in the kitchens."

Nancy Baker, 33, whose seven-year-old daughter Bethany has the new healthy school meals inspired by the TV star, said: "He's done a great job, but in return he made a lot of money, so why should we pay?

"It's us who pay the council tax, so that's our money he's had."

Before the series there were reports that Sainsbury's were about to dump Oliver, 30, from their TV advertising campaign. But Jamie's School Dinners won 5million viewers and relaunched his career. He was commissioned to do another series - Jamie's Italy - and it set him up for a bid to crack American TV with a series on tackling child obesity. Publicist Mark Borkowski said: "The programme has made the Oliver brand worth millions."

A spokesman for Greenwich Council confirmed it had been charged by for the chefs. He said: "The pounds 40,000 went towards the cost of chefs supplied by Jamie Oliver. He met with council leader Chris Roberts and Jamie said, 'I think it would be a good idea if you (the council) funded these chefs, to back up work that I've been doing.'"

He said the information about it was "available" from March this year. But Unison and other councillors insisted they only learned of it recently and were surprised the council had been charged.

A spokesman for Jamie - who has two children, Poppy Honey, three and Daisy Boo, two, with 30-year-old wife Jools - said the chef put pounds 200,000 of his own money into the show.

He said: "Greenwich Council asked us to hire the chefs and agreed to be invoiced for them. Jamie put pounds 200,000 of his own money into the show and invoiced for pounds 40,000 as was agreed."

Jamie started his School Dinners campaign after he discovered just 37p per pupil was being spent on school meals. After he shamed the government into action, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly pledged pounds 280m to give primary schools 50p per meal, and secondaries 60p.

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