Building
Herefordshire school undergoes £100k work due to health and safety concerns
Work costing up to £100,000 is due to be undertaken at a school in Hereford to rectify guttering that poses a health and safety risk.
A report delivered to councillors by director of children’s wellbeing, Chris Baird, said if the work is not undertaken it would present a ‘serious’ to children, staff and visitors.
The Riverside primary school was built a decade ago – and the metal guttering was custom-made at the time for the building.
Problems were first identified last year, when the school reported that guttering was becoming loose as fixtures were failing.
Risk of fall
The report said if a fixing became completely detached, there is a risk that a section of guttering could fall and ‘seriously injure somebody’.
It said that immediate risk of guttering falling and causing injury was being kept under review and a suitable risk mitigation plan, which had been endorsed by the Herefordshire Council’s health and safety officer, was in place but ‘only as a short term arrangement’.
A more permanent solution was currently being assessed with further safety measures suggested ‘as soon as possible’.
Could fail
Initial work to resolve the situation was put at £86,000.
In the risk management section of the report, it stated: “A piece of guttering could fall and injure somebody. There is a short term management plan in place to manage this.
“The proposed solution could fail. Independent advice has been sought to gain assurance that this is a suitable long term solution.”
Herefordshire school undergoes £100k work due to health and safety concerns
£100k of work needed to resolve health and safety issue at school.
James Evison
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