ARGUS COMMENT: Asbestos truth now (From South Wales Argus)

"Farce is not a strong enough word to describe the situation at the school."

As a concerned parent I have followed these developments closely from the start back in October and I have a word that you may wish to consider alternating, that of:

INCOMPETENCE

I have read both the original Santia report, and the recent HSL report and it is deeply worrying that the huge upset and turmoil to learners, parents and staff of Cwmcarn High School has been based on an asbestos report that by HSL's (the UK legal authority on these matters) own findings, the testing undertaken by Santia contained fundamental testing errors including:

> counting ALL fibres present and declaring them as asbestos when they were not! and

> effectively not following HSE procedural guidelines on retaining such evidence for future scrutiny!

It should also be remembered that it was these basic errors that led to the recommendation that the School be immediately closed and that the only practical solution remaining was to demolish Cwmcarn High School.

I now have another word for you Mr Ward, how about:

LUDICROUS ?

There are many questions that need to be asked, and these will be answered in the fullness of time. It is our duty as concerned parents of children at CHS to ensure that certainty and stability of a quality education at CHS is restored as soon as possible. It should also be our duty as oppressed taxpayers in these austere times to understand what went wrong, ensure that any financial losses (not just limited to the cost of transport provided, but also to the extent that the school budget may have been (or will be) impacted by this current outcome that should have been avoided) to the School and Council is recovered, and that lessons be learned for the benefit of all 22 LA's across Wales, and for Welsh Government to have the utmost confidence in the advice being fed to it directly or indirectly by highly rewarded appointed "experts".

An in-depth enquiry into this matter should be undertaken by the powers that be, but I ask that this important exercise, not take priority over promptly securing the sustainable continued education delivery by Cwmcarn High School.

Thank you for your patience and continued attention if you got this far, but it is sad and regrettable that we are in this sorry situation, and words sometimes are not just enough to do justice to the hurt and suffering that this fiasco has already caused many hundreds of families in the Borough.

The manner in which the staff, children and their families have been treated is disgusting.
We are all entitled to know exactly what has gone on here. I find it difficult to believe that Santia are so incapable that the cannot distinguish between skin cells and asbestos fibres.
And why is the school still closed?
And why haven't the council informed us of these latest developments? They couldn't wait to send the closure letters out, they didn't even allow time for the Head to address the school community.
And why haven't the council reassured us regarding the health concerns of over 900 children and staff?
There MUST be transparency here!!
The families of those involved and the public want answers from CCBC now. We want to know when can the school move back to Cwmcarn, why do we still have to be inconvenienced.

Farce is far too tame a word for what has been happening at the school. Fraud comes far closer in my opinion.

Whether the company that performed the initial survey are at fault for getting their figures so wrong, or if it's a deeper issue within the council looking for an excuse to close the school as a cost saving exercise and an attempt to divert pupils to Risca or Newbridge instead I couldn't say.

However, I would hope that someone will dig behind the surface issues and report the real facts behind this. It used to be called "journalism".

Queens High School in Newport was full of asbestos.

It is unbelievable; it feels that every few days there is a new twist and turn. You are probably aware that Santia have released a response to the HSE commissioned report.
There are so many discrepancies in their own statement and more questions need to be answered:

http://savecwmcarn.b
logspot.co.uk/2013/0
2/concerns-over-sant
ia-response.html

Santia can not continue to hold the school and county borough to ransom,

"Some parents believe the council simply wants rid of Cwmcarn School. Whether they are right is debatable – but they certainly deserve some full and frank answers from the council."

Given that NONE of the relevant Labour councillors could be bothered to turn up to the public meeting regarding the school held on Monday evening, I doubt very much if answers will be forthcoming from the local authority. The words 'conspiracy' and 'stitch-up' are now upper-most in the minds of parents.

The absence of all Labour councillors at the recent public meeting was disgraceful. Many, many parents now firmly believe that this is all part of a plan to close Cwmcarn High School.
Back in October we were told by the council that they were waiting for the HSL(the U.K legal authority and the gold standard in these tests) report before deciding what to do. Well, we've got that report now and it states that that the school is safe and always has been safe and, yet, the children are still not back at Cwmcarn. Why is this? No one will give us an answer.