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Wednesday September 6 | 2023
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HEARTFELT SUPPORT: The annual Dragon Boat Festival took place at Bewl Water on Saturday. Thirty teams competed in a wonderful day of competition, supporting various charities. The BHF Hearts of Gold team raised just over £5,000 for the British Heart Foundation.
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Kent school buildings ‘safe’ but St James’ reopening stalled by a day By Victoria Roberts and Michelle Wood
TUNBRIDGE WELLS 01892 521700 (sales) 01892 521740 (lettings) tunwells@jackson-stops.co.uk jackson-stops.co.uk
ALL Kent schools that were identified as a risk, owing to defective concrete, have now been inspected and deemed safe. No further schools have been identified as having a high and medium risk for Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), Kent County Council (KCC) has confirmed. Despite this, children from St James’ CofE remained at home yesterday as the school awaited confirmation from
the Department for Education that the school could safely reopen. Over the weekend Cllr Rory Love, KCC Cabinet Member for Education and Skills had said: “I can confirm that all school sites for which KCC is responsible, and which had a high and medium risk of containing RAAC, have now been inspected.” The statement followed a nationwide scramble to inspect and secure all school buildings late last week, after the Department for Education (DfE) published RAAC guidance on August 31.
When it came to state-funded educational establishments that were in the process of identifying, suspected they had, or had confirmed RAAC, the DfE said: “Spaces should remain out of use until appropriate mitigations are in place.” The Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership, which governs St Augustine’s and St Gregory’s schools in Tunbridge Wells, also confirmed to the Times that all its schools had been inspected, and
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INSIDE: Borough councillor joins new Independent group – page 2 CIF_Hever_Sept_23_194x45.indd 1
15/08/2023 09:05