A headteacher has criticised Essex County Council after the roof of his school collapsed over the holidays

Critical - the headteacher of John Bunyan School, Graham Cooper, believes there should have been a programme of repairs and refurbishment at the school. Picture SEANA HUGHES

Pupils aged six to 11 at John Bunyan Junior School, in Lancaster Way, Braintree, will not return to school until Thursday after the roof fell through on Thursday due to heavy rainfall.

The school's computer suite, special education needs room, library, administration office, storerooms and some classrooms have all been flooded and repairs to the roof have been estimated at £80,000.

Headteacher Graham Cooper believes the school would not have been plunged into chaos if essential work to the building had been completed years earlier.

He said: "There should have been a programme of repairs and refurbishment so this situation did not occur, but clearly this has not happened."

Mr Cooper said the school had put in successive bids to have the roof repaired, and it was only agreed in April last year for the repairs to go ahead.

But the bid was only for part of the roof, which eventually caved in last week before work could be started.

A spokesman for Essex County Council said: "A new roof for John Bunyan was identified but the total cost of the repairs across the county was well over £100 million, which was far more money than we would have in a single year."

Published Tuesday January 6, 2004

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