A SCHOOL kitchen has been closed after it failed to meet new safety regulations.

Education chiefs admitted that St Andrew's Primary School in Henknowle, near Bishop Auckland, might not be the only one affected by the new regulations.

Headteacher David Hutchinson confirmed that his school had been without the facility to cook hot meals for the last two weeks of the summer term and would not be for the foreseeable future.

He said that children would be given packed lunches.

The cooker in the school kitchen has not been fitted with a flame failure device, which would shut off the gas supply should the blue flame be blown out. New guidelines insist that all gas equipment in kitchens be fitted with the device.

A spokesman for Durham County Education Authority said that the guidelines were introduced in 1998 and appliances installed afterwards had been fitted with the right equipment.

But now stricter guidelines insist that all appliances have the device.

He said: "The new guidelines do not make the cooker or appliance any less safe than they were before."

The authority is now looking at all the schools in its area to make sure that all kitchens are fitted with the correct device.