As work on the rebuilding of Thornwell Primary School gets underway, county councillors have been debating whether to fit a sprinkler system in the old part of the building.

At last Thursday's (25th July) full council meeting, Thornwell councillor Armand Watts asked members to ammend the school's redevelopment budget 'to allow for a fully functional sprinkler system to be fitted throughout the entire school within the current rebuild timescale'.

"Two years ago, Thornwell School burned down and left many scars on staff, children and parents," said Cllr Watts.

"The sprinkler system is an important issue. It's a bit of a no-brainer really." Cllr Liz Hacket Pain, the cabinet member for schools, said the rebuild was happening in two stages.

"Phase one is the construction of the new building while the children are educated in the existing school.

"The new building will have a sprinkler system as well as a feeder tank big enough to feed sprinklers in the existing building should we decide to install them.

"To install a sprinkler system in the new building will be easy. Phase two is the redesign of the existing building to make it compatible with the new one.

"The existing building has a fire alarm but to put a sprinkler system in it would take a long time, and the practicalities are inhibitive.

"This motion cannot be acheived because Cllr Watts is jumping the gun – we need costings to be able to ammend the budget.

"We will look at putting a sprinkler system into the old building when we get the mechanical engineers' report after the children have been decamped to the new building."

Labour leader Dimitri Batrouni said: "You are telling people you are not guarding against half the building burning down."

Council leader Peter Fox said the health and safety of children in Monmouthshire's schools was paramount.

Cllr Hacket Pain, questioned on the need for further costings, said: "Estimates can only really take place when the children are out of the school and the work has been done.

"We don't know how much it would cost to put a sprinkler system into Thornwell School." The motion was not passed by councillors.