Barnet’s Bishop Douglass School would have had its risky concrete replaced under Labour’s Building Schools For the Future Programme in 2010 (BSF), but the incoming Conservative Government cancelled it.

A Barnet Council report from 2009, that agreed the priority schools for the BSF funding submission, was signed off by then Council Leader and now Finchley and Golders Green Conservative MP Mike Freer. It called for an £18million investment in the school.

It states: “Bishop Douglass: The school has significant condition and suitability issues. We propose to remodel and replace poor condition blocks on the existing site”.

However, when the Conservatives came into national office in 2010, they cancelled the investment.

Responding, the Leader of Barnet Council, Councillor Barry Rawlings,  has slammed the anti-public services Conservatives for creating the risky concrete crisis and then fumbling the response.

The crisis has been revealed by evidence emerging that reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), generally installed in schools and other buildings between the 1960s and 1990s, is now coming to the end of its safe working life.

Cllr Rawlings said: “The Conservatives put their thirst to cut public services ahead of the safety of our children. If Labour’s plans to revamp Bishop Douglass School had gone ahead, children and parents could have avoided worry and disruption.

“Now, as so often with this Conservative Government, Barnet taxpayers risk having to pay more from delayed action for all these years.”

Cllr Rawlings also slammed the chaotic Conservative Government response – who sat on the information from June and tried to contact thousands of different responsible bodies and schools individually, clogging up the process, rather than working through local authorities.

“The Conservatives have an attitude to public services that many Barnet residents will find so strange. Why were they so desperate to cut investment in education? Why, after recognising the leading role local authorities played on the ground during the Pandemic, did they not contact councils straight away to protect our children? They knew about these problems in June, and we were only contacted last Thursday.

“I urge the Government to set aside its bizarre mistrust of local government, and work with and support us to tackle this crisis together.

“The sooner we have a party in charge nationally who fully believes in public services – the Labour Party – the better.”

Barnet Council Cabinet Member for Family Friendly Barnet, Councillor Pauline Coakley-Webb, paid tribute to council staff, saying “I want to thank to all our employees who have met the moment when the Conservatives have failed. They have managed to ensure all our schools are checked in in two days, and are now moving on to check other public buildings.