From: John Reed (Retired teacher), Willow Grove, York.

Schools minister Nick Gibb must not be allowed to get away with his claims of taking ‘a very precautionary approach’ to our children and their teachers regarding unsafe RAAC concrete, as reported in today’s YP.

Nearly 30 years ago the Department for Education asked the Building Research Establishment to inspect RAAC roofs in several schools in Essex because of concerns about structural integrity.

Although they reported that these roofs were not an immediate threat, the DofE circulated schools to inspect RAAC roofs. The BRE then researched the use of this concrete.

Remedial work being carried out at Mayflower Primary School in Leicester, which has been affected by sub-standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). PIC: Jacob King/PA Wire

In February 1999 the Standing Committee on Structural Safety made a recommendation that schools and other buildings with pre-1980 RAAC roofs should have them inspected.

In July 2018 an RAAC roof in a primary school in Kent collapsed, which should have been a wake up call for the doziest of governments. It was sheer luck that the children were away.

That was five years ago. One year ago the Government Property Agency said that RAAC should now be assumed to be life expired and ‘liable to collapse’. Once again the government has failed repeatedly to meet even the minimum standard and then tried to pretend that it’s a new issue that no one could have foreseen.

Warning signs were already there, the RAAC issue in schools was not unforeseen - Yorkshire Post Letters