School closures due to crumbling concrete

[HoliHormonalTigerLillyTheSecond]

JFC you are kidding me?!

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/31/english-schools-told-to-close-buildings-made-with-crumble-risk-concrete]

BSF was intended to replace all schools.

Michael Gove apparently says that cancelling it was his biggest mistake.

And let's face it, he has made lots of big mistakes.

As a complete ignoramus whose husband happens to work in the civil service housing provider, the weird thing is, Gove has a reasonable reputation compared to his peers for actually proactively trying to get shit done, and to some kind of quality standard that's based on actual needs.

Which just goes to show how truly fucked the other departments are - Gove is the bar they have to stumble over drunkenly at a Christmas party.

"Contractors and materials should have been organised ready to arrive on site when schools finished in July, and subject to penalty clauses if they failed to complete by September."

There isn't enough capacity across the UK to get on site at this many schools simultaneously and no contractor would take on the work on those terms. Depending on where the RAAC is and how much of it there is it might not be possible to do everything that's needed in 6 weeks anyway, and you don't always know how long it's going to take until you've started.

I absolutely blame the government for not getting onto this sooner but let's not be unrealistic about the extent of what's needed to rectify this. What should have happened by now in/with the affected schools is a proper assessment of what if any decant is required and some sort of centralised effort to get portacabins lined up for the schools that need them.

I looked into this but actually Gove just said he regretted the way he handled the situation in a "crass and insensitive way". www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/gove-i-regret-scrapping-building-schools-for-the-future www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/gove-i-regret-scrapping-building-schools-for-the-future]]

I thought it was hard to believe that Gove would actually regret one of his (many) terrible decisions.

I am assuming that schools who don't know if they have RAAC in the building are now going to have to pay to get surveyors in.

Which just goes to show how truly fucked the other departments are - Gove is the bar they have to stumble over drunkenly at a Christmas party.

@thecatsthecats I hope you don't mind but I've corrected your typo:

Gove is the bar they have to stumble over drunkenly at a lockdown Christmas party.

It also affects a lot of other public buildings, not just schools.

Fuck knows where they're going to find all the surveyors to do the tests and contractors to do the remedial work. It could take years to check and remediate all that needs doing.

No doubt will turn into some nice little earner for mates of the Tories who run these sorts of businesses.

Maybe that's a good apprenticeship/ qual to do for any 16 year olds stuck, we will start seeing a push for surveying as a career choice.

Critical shortage of RICS surveyors too. You couldn’t make this shit up. I presume they’ll be onto their mates over a portacabin contract very, very soon. This is the tip of the iceberg and many, many more schools will close as the days and weeks go on.

@Boomboom22

If you’re 16 and at a loose end it’s more construction you should be looking into. Surveying is a 3 year degree and then onto a training contract afterwards.

This is the tip of the iceberg and many, many more schools will close as the days and weeks go on.

It's going to be an absolute shit show. Many of the schools had no idea what RAACs was, let alone if it was in their school. Now schools are closing they're going to have to take a closer look, and so many will be forced to close with little to no notice to parents / carers.

What's the betting the Gov will do a u-turn and claim it's ok to use the bulidings. I wonder if it will be when we reach 200, 400 or 1000 schools that need to fully or patially close?

@Whinge

Hmm, and what’s the betting the general public will be “rest assured” that the buildings are indeed safe if they do do a U-turn. It’s depressing and I fear it’s going to take an inevitable loss of life.

Mmm. As safe as Grenfell.

Unfortunately we've already seen that people are willing to overlook safety concerns if it means children can go to school. I fear you're right that it will take a fatality for things to change, and even then schools will be blamed with cries of "why didn't they tell us" and "they should have done something"

My old senior school opened in September 1939 (good timing) so in terms of this will be ok, but it has had additional blocks built so they could be affected. So even an older school isn't immune from disruption if they have expanded.

Thankfully my DC's school will be fine as it is a post 2000 build. The secondary schools in my area will generally be ok - most of them are new builds, often due to merging two schools. The primary schools are mainly older buildings.

Kings Lynn hospital built of RAAC has over 3,500 props holding it up at the moment, I have no idea how it’s still allowed to be open. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s the same with other hospitals locally, it’s so bad West Suffolk has taken out Corporate Manslaughter Insurance out. The thought that it’s also in so many schools nationwide and potentially hundreds more is scary.

so if a school was built after 2000, is there no chance that the areated concrete would have been used?

@MentholLoad apparently it was only used until the mid 1990s. In 1995 they realised it was faulty so didn’t use it after that. So anything 2000 onward should be fine.

Meanwhile in Wales, where education including infrastructure is devolved and Labour have been in power since 1999, the Welsh government is only now getting round to surveying schools for RAAC.

Presumably only in reaction to the announcement in England.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-66674268.amp

Schools announced

thanks
now we are going to find out they kept using it, when they knew it was a problem, aren't we

@MentholLoad I must admit that thought crossed my mind as well. Here’s hoping it’s not in any council housing.

An expert said that social housing needs to be reviewed urgently for RAAC. The govt says it’s the responsibility of whoever owns the building.

It feels like the Covid schools debacle over again for the schools who haven't yet been contacted. Or the legionella bacteria on the Bibbi Stockholm. Some schools are back in from today, the rest next week. How many will be sent home practically as soon as they arrive?

Don't assume because a school building is post 2000 it's safe. In 2018 multiple new build schools in Edinburgh were found to have building defects after the wall off a primary school was blown down in strong wind.