Sixteen school kitchens are “threatened with closure” unless urgent work is funded from a council’s capital budget, a report has revealed.

The message was contained in a draft capital business case submitted by Conwy county council’s education department and viewed by its cabinet this week.

The report said the authority was “putting their school kitchen employees, and other people and children in the vicinity, at risk of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide poisoning” if work is not undertaken to mitigate the danger posed by inadequate ventilation.

Gas safety inspections revealed 16 school kitchens have been identified as not conforming with current standards, with two of them classified as “at risk”.

Those classified as “at risk” are because of poor ventilation systems and some of the kitchens and canopies are constructed of aluminium and perspex, deemed inappropriate because of high temperatures they achieve in a fire.

The report said: “These kitchens are only allowed to stay open because the gas equipment is existing and clear instruction notices are posted for the gas appliances only to be operated with the window or the door open and adequate ventilation.

“New gas equipment cannot be installed in these kitchens without adequate air management and interlock systems.

“A balance will be reached between the cost of installing air handling units and upgrading the kitchen equipment to energy efficient electric induction technology, for cooking that doesn’t need the same sophisticated air handling.”

The preferred proposal is to replace gas cookers in the five worst affected kitchens with electric models and install carbon monoxide monitors in the remainder.

New appliances would cost the council £15,000 in each of the five chosen, plus approximately £11,200 to install carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide detectors in 16 kitchens, totalling an estimated £86,200.

The other options were to do nothing, which the report said could leave it “open to litigation from Health and Safety or food hygiene related issues”, or “deliver three kitchens with air handling units at approximately £95,000 each”, plus £11,200-worth of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide detectors.

The study argued spending such sums on air-handling units might not make sense because of the likelihood of school modernisation programmes over the next 10 years.

It said not acting could also see schools will be issued with a “prohibition order”, meaning kitchens could be put out of action.

Full council will have the final vote on all capital business cases on Thursday, March 4.