St. Luke’s Catholic Primary School – Removal of ACMs

St. Luke’s Catholic Primary School is a popular school in Harlow, Essex and part of the Diocese of Brentwood. Throughout the school, the original ceilings featured Asbestos coatings in keeping with the contemporary construction methods used when the school was built. Given the issues surrounding Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs), their presence caused significant problems for day-to-day maintenance to the school, and in particular mechanical and electrical services throughout. The presence of ACMs also greatly increase the cost of any works, making maintenance and alterations strictly limited.

Due to the limitations and costs suffered by the school, the decision was taken to apply for Condition Improvement Funding (CIF) from the Education Funding Authority (EFA) to remove the ACMs and replace with new suspended ceilings and low-energy LED lighting.

M+C supported the school through the development of the bid, undertaking condition surveys and commissioning specialist surveys, as well as undertaking the procurement and project planning for the scheme in order to present a fully cohesive bid to the EFA. The bid included a Salix Funding application, using the savings calculated from the energy savings generated by the inclusion of the LED lighting. In total, the move to LED lighting was projected to save in excess of £1,000 and 4.78 tonnes of CO2 per annum. The scheme proposed included half of the school in order

Forum Contracts successfully won the tender to deliver the scheme, with Independent Asbestos undertaking the removal of the ACMs throughout.  The scheme was undertaken during the summer holidays. Works were phased to provide ‘safe’ working areas to be accessible as soon as possible once the removal of ACMs was completed. The new LED lighting system was designed to ensure optimal conditions for teaching.