Minutes before a meeting to scrutinise the food strategy policy for Monmouthshire County Council, a decision has been made to re-tender for the milk procurement for the county.

MCC came under pressure with a decision in January - part of a collaborative partnership with other councils - to award the milk supplies to the council’s school, care homes, leisure centres and tourist attractions to a Haverfordwest dairy, Totally Welsh.

Prior to that, a Raglan dairy run by James Durose has been the council’s provider and had a food standards rating of 5, the maximum achievable.

Totally Welsh, at the time of the procurement decision in January, languished with a rating of 1 and despite another inspection at the end of February, could still only manage to attain a 3 - Generally Satisfactory.

Now a review by Monmouthshire County Council on what they need has led to a decision to take a “stand-alone” approach to milk procurement.

A statement has been issued by MCC saying that they are starting “a fresh process”.

A spokesman for the council said: “ We will ensure that we give all potential providers a chance to take part and will host ‘meet the buyer’ events before we write our final tender document.

“We will remain in tune with legislation and at the same time ensure that Monmouthshire’s present and future milk and dairy needs are best catered for.  

“We think the discussions and bids will take about six months and there will be a fully transparent approach to the tender and decision-making process.”

The Chronicle has asked who will be providing the milk and dairy products during this six month lead time