School’s ‘10-year’ roof leak won’t be fixed until ‘21

LEAKING skylights that left water pouring down the walls near electrics at a Kingswood school will not be repaired until next year because of social distancing requirements.

“Urgent” repairs were due to take place at Courtney Primary School last month after the issue was raised with South Gloucestershire Council’s Tory leader Toby Savage in June.

But they will not start until Easter 2021 and could take at least five months.

The council said the building works, which also include gutter repairs, were shifted at the request of the school.

“It was felt that construction work could impact social distancing measures required to allow pupils and staff to return to school safely in early September 2020,” a council spokesperson said.

The school did not wish to add any further comment.

Labour councillor Alison Evans told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the leaks have been going on for “about 10 years”.

She said: “The school have been trying to get the roof fixed for a long time with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the council and the builders/architects.”

Labour group leader Pat Rooney raised the issue with Cllr Savage at a cabinet meeting in July, saying that “promises were made but not kept”.

Cllr Rooney said: “I sent you an urgent email on June 16 describing the seriousness of the school’s fabric with water running down walls and ceiling tiles throughout the school, against exposed pipes and gaping holes, and most dangerously the fact that the water pouring in was channelling near the electrics.”

She asked for assurances that the problem would be fixed in time for when schools reopened in early September.

At the time, the council said it was working with the school to agree a timeframe for the repairs, and that it was reliant on the building sector which had been affected by Covid-19.

It its latest response to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a council spokesperson said: “The first phase of roof gutter repairs was successfully completed during August 2020.

“The start of the second phase of gutter repair work and the replacement of the rooflights was moved from Sept/Oct 2020 to Easter 2021 at the request of the school, because it was felt that construction work could impact social distancing measures required to allow pupils and staff to return to school safely in early September 2020.

“We have changed the design for the replacement rooflights which should overcome the inherent problems associated with the original bespoke design.”

The repairs to Courtney Primary School are expected to cost £150,000 altogether.