Demanding Assurances over RAAC

Letter to the Council

To: Hertfordshire County Spokesperson on Education, Libraries and Life Long Learning and

To: Hertfordshire County Spokesperson Public Health & Community Safety

Like many parents, teachers and pupils alike I was horrified to hear that children have been taught in unsafe buildings and cannot return to school because of the use of RAAC in school buildings. In Harpenden & Berkhamsted, Markyate Village School & Nursery has been listed so far. This is yet another example of how we have been let down by this failing Conservative government.

The use of RAAC however is not exclusive to school buildings and could include other public buildings such as hospitals. In Hertfordshire, we must have assurances that: 

• School buildings, hospitals, clinics, family centres, and other at-risk buildings will be appropriately surveyed and those at risk have had the mitigating work done

• The council is working with district councils as well as national government to resolve this as quickly as possible.

• Where it is the councils’ responsibility, alternative measures will be put in place when and where buildings will have to temporarily shut.

The latest scandal over RAAC shows that this Conservative Government has yet again put children, patients and teachers last. This Government has known about this issue for months, if not years, as the first alert from the Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS), of a “significant risk” of failure of RAAC was in May 2019. 

And yet it is at a critical time, just as school children are expecting to return to school that the issue has reached a critical state and action is finally being taken. This timing has caused even more disruption to learning and parents’ work arrangements when it could have been dealt with much sooner. 

Please join me in demanding that the Conservative government, this County Council and the Health Authorities tackle this issue as urgently as possible to ensure members of the public namely pupils, teachers, patients, and healthcare workers remain safe in their place of work and study. 

Yours Sincerely 

Victoria Collins