The wealthy King’s School has gone cap in hand to the taxpayer to cover the cost of lunch during a community science day at its historic site.

Despite being one of the richest organisations in Canterbury and raking in £30 million a year in tuition fees, it wanted a donation from a city council fund designed to help worthy causes.

The £755 it asked for would have paid for a lasagne lunch and chocolate brownie dessert – at £7.50 a head – for disadvantaged youngsters attending the science day next Sunday, March 19.

But councillors decided the £12,000-a-term school – which as a registered charity enjoys huge tax breaks – would have to find the cash itself.

Speaking at a meeting of the Canterbury Area Member Panel on Monday, Cllr Alan Baldock (Lab) said: “Independent schools should work for their charity status.

“They get more than £30,000-a-year per child – that’s twice the living wage, and they get an 80% business rate relief. There is a huge disconnect here.”

Cllr Nick Eden-Green (Lib Dem) questioned how giving money to a wealthy public school would be perceived, while recognising the motives of King’s were “noble and right”.

“Would it be misinterpreted as the council giving money to the school rather than the council giving money to the disadvantaged pupils?” he said.

“Equally, should the city council be picking out a private school for its financial support?

"If it were perceived that we as a council were financially supporting the King’s School, that is not going to go down terribly well and that is a risk.”

Appealing for the grant, science teacher and King’s School head of partnerships Christina Astin said without the donation it would have to restrict numbers on the day, which will cost more than £3,000 to host.

“The biggest expense is not the staffing, it’s the lunch,” she said.

“We want to give everybody a good hot meal as we felt it was a very important part of the day.

“But less funding will mean we will have to restrict our numbers.

“We can’t expect the staff to work for nothing – they already work six days out of seven.

"We hope it will be a springboard to working more closely with the council and the community.”

Cllr Louise Jones (Con), who told the meeting her son attends a public school, said the committee had turned down other worthy applications because members felt the money could be raised somewhere else and not out of the public purse.

Fellow Tory Cllr Steve Williams proposed giving King’s half of the cash but members rejected the motion by five votes to four.

Following the meeting, school bursar Mark Taylor told the Gazette that King’s does a huge amount of work with the local community and state schools through its partnerships programme, supporting more than 2,500 pupils and 120 teachers.

It also pays about £1 million in bursaries for children who cannot afford school fees.

He added: “We just thought that by applying to the opportunities fund it would be seen as more of a joint community event and encourage more children to attend.”