Highland Council's proposed budget cuts include plans to reduce the amount of meat in school dinners.

The local authority is looking to redesign its menu options, replacing fresh meat with pulses and vegetable protein as part of its savings proposals.

A report into the proposed budget savings said that the changes would not affect the nutritional value of the meals.

The proposals, which have already been trialled in some schools, would save the council £160,000 in 2016/17.

The local authority is currently trying to cut £8.5m from its budget.

A report into the savings proposals said: "Some trialling of these proposals have already taken place within schools. Could be some negative feedback from service users, though this is mitigated by the extent to which trials have already taken place to replace fresh meat with vegetable protein/pulses as part of the dish."

The proposed education savings cuts also include reductions to school equipment budgets and changes to the supply teaching budget.

Bob Colman, Highland secretary of EIS, told The Inverness Courier that the plans will impact the ‘core delivery of education’.

He said: "This is a budget with no good news for education. It comes on top of year-on-year of excessive cuts to the care and learning budget.

"The proposals are really now impacting the core delivery of education.

"There is a significant amount of money coming out of education in the Highlands. Although it’s only 2.1 per cent of our budget that equates to £8.5 million, which is a significant amount of money and will have a number of significant consequences.

"When the council is considering this there’s a lack of what I would call poverty proofing. Some of this will have an impact on vulnerable young people in our community.

"It will also have a significant impact on the council’s commitment to close the attainment gap and make it much more difficult for head teachers to balance their budget."

Highland Council will debate the proposals at a meeting on budget savings today.

John Swinney forced through his controversial budget yesterday despite opposition over the impact cuts to council budgets will have on public services.

The Finance Secretary won the backing of 64 MSPs, with 57 opposed, as hundreds of trade union members demonstrated outside the parliament against the funding allocation for local government.

Mr Swinney revealed that more funding than previously outlined would be made available to reduce the attainment gap between rich and poor school pupils, doubling a fund to £160 million over the next three years.

However, he was warned by opposition MSPs that funding cuts to councils of up to £500m would hit schools and other local services.

The Deputy First Minister provoked anger from the Labour benches when he claimed that warnings over job losses on councils had been “utterly exaggerated”.