Ceiling collapses at Ellesmere College but RAAC is not the cause
A Shropshire independent school has said a ceiling that collapsed in one of its classrooms was not due to the controversial building material RAAC.
The ceiling in one of the classrooms at Ellesmere College collapsed on Monday morning, just before children came to class, and it was feared it could have been RAAC related.
Following the incident, the school requested a full survey of the buildings, and it was found to be RAAC free, and the ceiling collapse "an isolated incident" the school has said.
In a statement from the director of operations, Ellesmere College, which was built 1879, said: "The incident on Monday was not RAAC related. It happened in one of the classrooms in the older sections of the school and involved a portion of plaster that was part of a suspended the ceiling, which came down before the children were in class.
"We have had a survey done since the incident, which has found no RAAC at all within the school, so we believe this to be an isolated incident."
RAAC, or Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, was used in the construction of schools from the 1950s to the mid-1990s, but the building material can become "crumbly" over time and prone to collapse.
"Several hundred" surveys are now being carried out every week to find schools containing collapse-prone concrete in England, according to the Department for Education (DfE).
Meanwhile, Whitchurch library has been forced to close after Shropshire Council found the material in the town's Civic Centre.
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