Union leaders in the district have condemned Government proposals to make governing bodies responsible for managing asbestos in schools.

The Department of Education has announced plans to transfer responsibility for health and safety of pupils and staff from local authorities — a move condemned by the Joint Union Asbestos Committee, made up of the six main teaching unions.

In 2009 more than 200 council-run schools in Bradford district were known to contain asbestos and in September last year an inquest into the death of former teacher Graham Butterfield found he died of an industrial disease contracted while working at schools in the city.

Ian Murch, pictured, assistant secretary for the district’s National Union of Teachers, described the Government’s proposals as “shortsighted”.

He said: “First of all you need someone to have a register somewhere of the asbestos but you also need a team of people with expertise to manage it in a schools context and Bradford has a good track record of doing that. It has a good team of people who know what they are doing.

“If it’s left to schools, councils are left without the money to manage a specialist team. We have had problems in the past with individual contractors coming in and not knowing about asbestos risks and releasing particles into the atmosphere. It’s a risk for children as well as teachers.”

Pam Milner, regional spokesman for the NASUWT, said she opposed the plans “at all costs”. She said: “It’s really important that there’s a body on the local authority for health and safety because they then have the overview, they see standards are maintained throughout the district.

“If that responsibility is devolved to schools the first thing that worries me is that most governing bodies are not trained.

“Also, would the funding be expected to come from a school’s allocation of funding, not from a central pot, so would that mean the allocation for children is cut even further?”