Over half a million pounds has been set aside for “urgent” works to remove asbestos and fix windows at a Hereford secondary school.

The work in the C Block of Aylestone School to the northeast of the city is expected to cost up to £456,000, with a further £57,000 earmarked for professional fees.

The need for the work came to light during earlier emergency work to fix concrete panels at the school being carried out by local firm S C Joseph.

Given the urgency of the additional work, “further procurement would delay the completion of the works phase, leaving a health and safety issue on site”, the council said, explaining why the additional work had not been tendered for separately.

Nor would it have been practical to have two separate contractors working in the same space, the council said.

Elsewhere, a contractor has also been announced to substantially expand a Hereford school for children with social, emotional and mental health needs and learning difficulties.

Speller Metcalfe of Malvern will construct a new sports hall and two-class teaching block and also make internal alterations at The Brookfield School as part of a £5.8 million project funded by £4 million from the government, with Herefordshire Council making up the remaining £1.8 million.

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Meanwhile over £200,000 is to be spent improving lighting and ceilings at Ashfield Park primary school, Ross-on-Wye.

Herefordshire Council has awarded a contract for the works to Gloucestershire firm Snape Construction following a successful tender.

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And £77,000 is to be spent on a new canopies and an outside seating area at Wigmore High School near Leominster, in order to make areas useable in all weathers.

The money comes via a so-called section 106 agreement with the developer of a 39-home estate in Orleton.

But tenders for the work “far exceeded” the S106 cash available, leading to what the council called “a value engineering exercise” to cut the cost of the work, which will now be carried out by C J Bayliss of Hereford.