A FURIOUS councillor claims he was told in June that “crumbling concrete” at a special needs school in Eastwood was removed in 2018, after he raised concerns with the council.

Rob McMullan, councillor for Eastwood Park, has been left “angry” and “confused” after revealing he contacted Southend Council about Kingswood School after national issues surrounding the concrete began emerging.

He claims he contacted council officers to ensure they “were on top of it” because he had concerns over the impact of closing Kingsdown School because of the additional needs of children.

He was later told by officers at the council that Kingsdown did have the concrete on site, but it was “removed in 2018”.

He said: “I was comforted by that reply.

“But I am angry now having been told there are no issues to now see it has closed.

“I don’t want to blame the council or any officers as they may have been given incorrect information.

“But I had this concern in June. I was assured we didn’t have a problem.

“There is specialist equipment in there, so it needs to be a priority.

“The first thing is getting these youngsters back to the school because they need that stability.

“Then once the dust has settled, we can look at the information I was given, see if it was a mistake or incorrect, and try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

On Thursday, it was confirmed Kingsdown School in Eastwood has had to close immediately due to the presence of RAAC.

However, in response Southend Council have said more area of concern have since been identified after an inspection in July – weeks after an email was sent to Mr McMullan.

A spokesman said: “Kingsdown have been actively monitoring the RAAC in their school since 2018.

“Following the audit of RAAC undertaken by the DFE this year, the school was visited in July – since the email – and reinspected by DFE surveyors and this is when more areas of concerns were identified.”