ALL schools in Blaenau Gwent will be open from Monday, July 13, after several remained closed because legionella bacteria was found in the water supplies.

The issue forced five schools in the borough which had planned to re-open last Monday, June 29, to stay closed. The schools that remained closed were Blaen-y-Cwm Primary, Ystruth Primary, Brynmawr Foundation School, Tredegar Comprehensive School and Willowtown School.

However, the county borough council’s interim director of education Lynn Phillips said all schools would be open from July 13.

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He said: “The safety of our children and staff is, and will continue to be the priority.

“The majority of the school quality test results have indicated relatively low levels of contamination.”

Out of the 29 sites, seven tested positive for legionella.

Mr Phillips said the schools had responded “positively” and around 3,400 students accessed the catch-up sessions last week.

The council's executive member for education, Cllr Joanne Collins, said: “Every decision that has been taken, has been done so with the safety of the children and staff in mind.

“As soon as it became apparent that there were issues with water supply in some of our schools, we notified Welsh Government of the situation.

“It’s become apparent that this is not just a Blaenau Gwent issue and actually we have been one of the more proactive authorities as this has not been an approached used consistently across other Welsh authorities.”

The managing director at the council, Michelle Morris, said: “I am firmly of the view that the decision taken to not open some schools last week, while they were difficult decisions, it was the right decision.

“It is our intention to conduct a lessons-learned review and picking up on the good practice areas.

“My view is that we need it to be done by an independent organisation.”