Concrete closures: West Sussex County Council to commission inspections of all of its schools built between 1930 and 2000 after RAAC concerns

The inspections were called for after more than 100 schools nationwide were ordered by the government to shut buildings made with a certain type of concrete.

There are concerns that structures made with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) could be prone to collapse.

Nick Gibb, schools minister and MP for Bognor Regis & Littlehampton, told the BBC that there had been a number of instances over the summer where ‘RAAC that had been considered to be a low risk actually turned out to be unsafe’.

This included one seemingly sound concrete beam collapsing.

A council spokesman said that none of the maintained schools in the county would be ‘immediately shut’.

They added: “West Sussex County Council is aware of the RAAC issue and has already completed a review of records for [council] maintained schools.

“No [council] maintained schools have been identified from records as containing any indicating RAAC construction – and to provide added confidence physical inspections of all maintained school blocks constructed between 1930-2000 is being commissioned.”