Pupils
at a Coventry school will be having an extended holiday after workers installing a new
central heating system discovered a large quantity of asbestos.
Hollyfast Primary School was celebrating being awarded the money for a heating system
through the Government’s ‘New Deal for Schools’ scheme but delight turned
to despair when workers removed ceiling tiles.
Behind them they found pipe-lagging which they believed to be asbestos and after
sending a sample of the lagging for analysis their suspicions were confirmed.
Councillor Joe Clifford chair of the Educational Excellence Policy Team admits that the
problem will cause some disruption to the school.
He said:
"We are having some temporary classrooms delivered to the school today and we will
then transfer all of the furniture from the main school.
"As soon as that is done the main school will be closed all together. We then have
to go through the process of tendering for expert removal, awarding a contract and having
the work undertaken.
"We hope to have the children back at school in the portacabins on 15 September,
but by the time the asbestos has been removed and the central heating has been installed
into the main school it will be the beginning of the January term."
There will be a public meeting tonight at Coundon Court School to discuss the matter
with parents from the school, but Cllr Clifford is stressing that there has never been any
health risk to the pupils.
He said:
"We are having the meeting to keep parents fully informed although we have already
been doing that through letters.
"This asbestos was found after ceiling panels were removed but it is perfectly
safe unless it is disturbed.
"Obviously now we have to disturb it to install the new pipes but previously it
has been concealed behind roof tiles and the children have never been exposed to it."
