School building made of unsafe concrete to be torn down

A primary school will be rebuilt after councillors unanimously backed plans to demolish the existing RAAC-affected building and construct a new two-storey school.

Back in 2023, safety concerns were raised by parents of children attending St Francis Catholic Primary School in Coronation Road, Ascot, after Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was discovered there.

RAAC is a lightweight form of concrete widely used in the UK between the 1950s and the mid-1990s.

Dubbed ‘Aero bar’ concrete due to its air bubble structure, RAAC is significantly weaker than conventional reinforced concrete and has a lifespan of around 30 years.

After that point, its structural integrity can deteriorate rapidly.

As such, RBWM commissioned an RAAC survey of its school buildings in 2022 and found unsafe concrete at St Francis – the only school affected. The building needs to be replaced.

Yesterday (Thursday, February 12), members of the Windsor and Ascot development management committee looked at an application to demolish the school building and erect a new one (ref 25/02650).

The new building will provide 1,379sqm of new teaching space, including eight classrooms and a 180sqm indoor hall.

It will reach a maximum height of about 10.7m and will sit 5.3m from the northern boundary with Friary Court – further away than the current structure.

Pupil numbers will remain at 210, with 10 full-time and 18 part-time staff. A separate nursery building, with five staff and up to 24 children, is unaffected.

During construction, a temporary single-storey building measuring 38m by 12m will operate on the playing field for up to 24 months.

Officers confirmed that its removal will be required once the permanent school is complete.

Plans also include a remodelled car park and a multi-use games area (MUGA), new play areas and biodiversity enhancements, including 28 new trees to offset limited losses.

The building will be net zero, incorporating solar panels, heat pumps and green roofs.

Parking will reduce – from 53 to 45 spaces – but will include two accessible bays and electric vehicle charging points.

Officers said this remains well above parking standards for the school and church, which share the site. A condition will tie the car park’s use exclusively to them.

However, the application was not received entirely positively by the community. It fetched 16 objection letters.

Speaking at the meeting, a representative from Friary Road Residents Association said its members had hoped something would be done ‘to rectify the chaotic pick-up and drop-off situation.’

The faith school’s catchment area is larger than other primaries, encouraging more car use.

This proposal, said the rep, ‘reduces the drop-off facility’ and residents feel they ‘have been ignored’, he said.

Officers replied that there was a limit to what the local authority could insist on within the confines of planning rules.

But RBWM could use conditions to require that a travel plan be put together. These can be used to encourage walking, cycling, car sharing or ‘kiss and drop’ arrangements.

Councillors noted that pick-up/drop-off problems are widespread throughout the borough.

They concluded the benefits of the scheme much outweighed the harms and voted unanimously in favour of allowing permission.