Unsafe concrete: Sudden evacuation at Essex school raises concerns from parents and staff
James Saunders is wandering through the corridors of Honywood School looking into the condemned classrooms in frustration.
It was in July when the headteacher received the results of a building inspection flagging some issues with the crumbling concrete used to build large parts of this Essex school.
But there was no immediate danger. Issues only needed addressing with a longer-term mitigation plan, they were told by Department for Education officials in August.
The updated risk assessment came on Thursday without warning – ordering the evacuation of any area with the presence of RAAC.
The reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete deteriorates and leaves buildings prone to collapsing. But Mr Saunders is left wondering why, only now, the material is seen as such an immediate danger to safety.
Headteacher James Saunders
The classrooms we are being shown around on a Saturday afternoon – discussing the hidden danger – will be just as empty next week when the new school year should be starting here.
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Instead, 340 of the 800 pupils will have to stay home with 22 classrooms here – half the school – and as many more additional rooms closed off.
“It’s only been on my radar really for the last six months,” Mr Saunders told Sky News. “I’d never heard of RAAC before, until I’d received a document that said we’re doing a survey.”
Even then, the warning signs weren’t there until receiving a phone call on Thursday.
“The risk approach from the DfE had changed,” he said. “And that any room that we had RAAC had to be closed with immediate effect, and we weren’t able to use it for the start of term.”
So virtual lessons will return two years after the COVID disruption ended – creating an even bigger crisis for this school near Colchester.
“I think the difference between this and COVID is that every single school was in the same position,” Mr Saunders said. “But now you’ve got some schools that are fine, some schools that aren’t.
“But it is maybe more serious, because there’s a more immediate risk to children that maybe wasn’t there during COVID. And you’ve got an unevenness across the country with schools affected.”
Temporary facilities are being sought and funded to rebuild.
“Who knows what the extent of the problem is and how long it’s going to take to rectify,” Mr Saunders said.
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What is the concrete crisis?
“In a way, the easiest solution will be to put a plaster on it for the next few years. So ultimately, it would be lovely if we could get a new school.”
Parents of pupils at Honywood School are frustrated with the government
Jo Jullien said: “My biggest shock is actually the frustration at how it’s been known prior to the summer holidays – even before that – that there was a problem.
“But my understanding from the email that’s come from the school is actually Honywood was low risk and then suddenly, two days ago, it’s been moved from low risk to actually closing at least half of their classrooms, which is just unbelievable. I can’t imagine how that decision has been made.”
Another parent of a GCSE year pupil – Sarah Cooper – also has questions for authorities.
“This is something that they’ve had knowledge of for the entire duration of my first child’s time at the school,” she said.
“So while I have no worries that she was in any kind of danger, or anything like that, it’s frustrating to have this just come out now, the day before, the first of September, essentially, when school kids are just getting ready to go back to school.”
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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