Dozens of buildings across Bristol could still have ‘crumbly concrete’

Two years after the crumbly concrete crisis forced schools across England to close suddenly, there are many buildings left in Bristol which could be affected.

Bristol City Council owns a lot of buildings across the city and has still not yet inspected all of them to check for crumbly concrete.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was often used in constructing public buildings across the country, such as offices, community centres and nurseries.

RAAC is less durable than traditional concrete, due to being full of tiny bubbles, and can collapse if it gets too wet.

Earlier this summer, City Hall bosses admitted that more than 200 council-owned buildings still needed inspections for RAAC, but did not say which ones.

Now a response to a freedom of information request has revealed the long list of affected buildings which could still have RAAC.

These include a warehouse storing important public records, libraries, community centres, shops and cafes. No maintained schools are affected, as the council inspected all of these in 2023.

The council was asked why the inspections are taking so long to complete, when the inspections are planned, and what level of risk there is to the affected buildings. A response was not provided by the time this article was published.

Around 1000 council buildings have already been inspected, and no RAAC was found. Council bosses faced questions from councillors on the housing policy committee in May about when the surveys will be carried out on the remaining buildings.

Speaking to councillors in May, Clare Gibb, transformation director of building safety, said that she was “acutely aware” that inspections had yet to take place.

Gibb said: “We’re procuring appropriate resources at pace. If that inspection highlights the need for more destructive surveys, obviously we will let the people who live there know.

“I’m hoping to start the visual inspection mid-summer. At this moment in time, we have to rule it out for all of our stock. If we find some, we’ll have to come back with a plan of what we’re going to do about it.”

The Trenchard Street car park depot is one of many council-owned buildings across the city that has still not yet been inspected to check for crumbly concrete – photo: Martin Booth

The list of buildings that still need to have a RAAC survey include:

• A Bond warehouse
• Part of the Ardagh Pavilion
• Avonmouth Community Centre
• Bamfield Scout Premises
• Bristol Bowling Club premises
• Bristol Sailing School
• Brunel’s Buttery
• Brunswick Square Kiosk
• Cashmore Early Years Centre
• Castle Park parks depot
• Cotman Walk Scout Hut
• Downs dressing rooms
• Felix Road Adventure Playground
• Freeling House units
• Girl Guide HQ
• Harrington Road Scout hut
• Knowle Library
• Lawrence Weston youth club
• Lockleaze Adventure Playground
• Malcom X Centre
• Mud Dock toilets and changing rooms
• Muller Road playing fields pavilion
• Noah’s
• The Old Library, Eastville
• Plimsoll Bridge watch tower
• Portway picnic area public toilets
• Redcatch Community Centre
• St Andrew’s Park Bowling Club
• St Anne’s Park changing rooms
• St Bernadette’s Rugby Club premises
• St George Riding School
• Scout resource centre
• Sea Mills Scout premises
• Shirehampton signal station
• South Bristol Intermediate Care Centre
• Southville Centre
• Spike Island art centre
• Trenchard Street multi-storey car park depot
• Trinity Lodge
• Units at Waring House
• Whitehall rugby club

Main photo: Martin Booth

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