THE Labour candidate at the next General Election has expressed his sympathies for all concerned over school closures but slammed the Conservative government.

Chris Vince said: “My thoughts are with pupils, parents and teachers at Katherine’s primary school who like their counterparts at Sir Fredrick Gibberd (SFG) College face an uncertain start to term, as well as those at other schools whom face uncertainty.

They can sugar coat it all they like but the news that more than 100 schools need to be closed over fears that their buildings could collapse is a disaster for children and families. Countless thousands of young people across the country face potentially being displaced and having their education severely disrupted. But it is also a scandal showing the sheer incompetence of this Conservative government.

Last week I met with parents of students from SFG college who, despite the very best efforts of the staff of the school, still face an uncertain future following the news that there are structural issues with the newly built school. Temporary classrooms, buses to other schools, timetable changes are far from ideal and not what parents were promised when they chose to send their children to SFG.

However, it seems that this issue is only the tip of the iceberg with many other schools now facing closure due to crumbling concrete, leaving the Government with many serious questions to answer.

What will be done to ensure not only the immediate safety of the affected young people but also that they face as little disruption as possible?

Why was the government so slow to act? They were warned in 2018 that over 156 schools were constructed with dangerous RAAC concrete, and the Conservative’s inadequate response was to send out a questionnaire to schools almost five years later which revealed in June that many school buildings were unsafe and had been unsafe for some considerable time.

The reckless delay in sending pupils into schools across the country, known to be dangerous for the last six weeks of the summer term mirrors the last minute closing of the dangerous SFG building and is absolutely shameful. Emergency measures should have been put in place for SFG. In April, as soon as the issues that led to the demolition of two similar schools in Cornwall were known.

And finally why did this Conservative government cancel the last Labour government’s school building program when they came to power in 2010?

“Clearly the Conservatives chose to ignore the long term need of refurbishments of schools and this mistake is coming home to roost at enormous cost. Instead they chose to rush through a cut price school building program to the detriment of Harlow and other communities. It’s now the young people of Harlow and across the country who are paying the immediate price for this in terms of disruption, lost educational time and opportunities.

“The taxpayer will also pay a very expensive price for the immediate repairs and temporary accommodation followed by even more costly rebuilds which should have been competed years ago before the current hike in building costs caused by the soaring inflation resulting from the Conservatives crashing of the economy.

“Harlow’s next generation deserves better than this!”