A lawyer acting for Kent County Council has hailed the size of a £200,000 fine dished out to the authority after an exposed asbestos rope was found at a school.

General counsel Benjamin Watts said the size of the penalty dished out to the council was a "significant result" after the kitchens at Lansdowne Primary School in Sittingbourne had to be closed briefly following the discovery in 2013, brought about by the demolition of a wall.

Mr Watts said a penalty of up to £2.2 million was being sought by the Health and Safety Executive, but the judge imposed a fine of £200,000 plus £21,000 costs back in August.

He told councillors: “The conduct of this litigation is something that presented a significant result for the organisation.

“We moved from a situation where we were potentially facing a fine of several million pounds to the outcome.

“While one would never wish to be paying a fine of any kind, the way in which we conducted the litigation and the considerable efforts of those who worked incredibly hard through nights and weekends got us to that position.”

Councillors were told yesterday that the work had been carried out by the school’s janitor over the weekend under the instruction of the then-headteacher.

Although KCC officials request asbestos awareness training is given to all school staff, the headteacher is responsible for ensuring this is carried out – but on this occasion, it was not.

Council papers read: “The failing here was in having robust systems to ‘ensure, check and monitor that those systems were being properly followed’.

“Ultimately, there were systems in place but the judge found that these were not sufficiently adhered to or implemented.”

Health and safety officer Flavio Walker said the asbestos rope was removed within 24 hours of it being found, and that no pupil or member of staff was “ever” in any danger.

Reports suggest the risk of death was given as being at 0.009% "at most".

KCC is now in the process of seeking legal advice as to who is responsible for such checks at properties across its portfolio, insisting lessons have been learnt from the incident.