SOMERSET and Dorset Council-controlled schools are not on the list of those with RAAC concrete risks.

Both councils have told your New Blackmore Vale they are unaware of any schools in their areas facing the issue, which has prompted the government to tell schools to close at-risk buildings.

We have yet to receive a response from Wiltshire Council.

More than 150 schools in England have been told they may need to shut some buildings.

However, while Somerset and Dorset say no schools in their control are affected, academies and voluntary aided schools report directly to the Department for Education (DfE).

So far, the government has declined to issue a list of affected schools, but says it will do so once parents have heard directly from schools.

“We will publish a list – we are talking to schools right now, every school is getting a case worker and will be supported to make the right decision to handle this RAAC issue,” education minister Nick Gibb told the BBC.

“The schools are then talking to parents, and we want the parents to hear from school, not to read about it in the media first.”

Once remediation measures are put in place and schools are in a stable place, “we will publish the list”, he added.

Mr Gibb has also confirmed the government would foot the bill for any costs for temporary accommodation or additional transport incurred by schools due to the problem, as well as for ‘remedial costs to the school building’.

“We are paying for those costs,” he said. “If in the worst case scenario a school does have to close and we put portacabins into the grounds, all that cost will be covered by the department.

“And any remedial costs to the school building, that will all be covered by the Department for Education.”

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