Conwy: Pupil kicking hole in wall sparks school asbestos fear

Schools in Conwy county may be rechecked for asbestos after a pupil kicked a hole in a wall exposing the substance.

The council's education department wants £100,000 to resurvey all schools in the county after concerns previous checks were "inaccurate".

It comes after pupil kicked a hole in a wall, exposing asbestos, which was not flagged up on previous inspections.

In a report to the council, officers said the incident "raised alarm bells".

Asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999, after a link was established to lung diseases including mesothelioma.

However any school buildings may contain asbestos if any part of them was built before 2000.

Under Welsh Government guidance published in 2019 each school must have a suitable, sufficient and up to date survey of the buildings to identify the presence of asbestos.

However, in a report to the council's cabinet officers said the surveys the council was reliant upon for its asbestos management obligations were carried out "as far back as 20 years ago".

"The fact that this particular item was not even classed as suspected asbestos casts doubt on the veracity of the surveys," it reads.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, 59 schools in Conwy are known to have asbestos.The report states many of the asbestos registers show "numerous items of 'presumed asbestos'" and an enhanced survey would help the council to focus on removing the substance from schools.The uses for asbestos in the county's schools range from "insulation materials associated with the school's heating system, to floor and ceiling tiles and wall panels", according to the report.

Some of the material is situated in children's classrooms and the council's policy had been "identification, management and inspection" of it.

In 2013 the UK government's committee on carcinogenicity confirmed children were more at risk from asbestos than adults as they will live longer, providing greater opportunity for any asbestos disease to develop.

The report said the £100,000 for the study would allow the council to "plan for the phased removal of asbestos from its schools".