The Meadows Day Care Centre at Castel Hospital, where a ceiling collapsed due to heavy rain yesterday.

TORRENTIAL rain brought down a ceiling in a dementia day centre yesterday as storms caused havoc across the island.

Fears of asbestos being exposed forced the Meadows Day Centre to close and a specialist contractor was brought in last evening to assess the damage.

The 1970s building normally provides activities for about 20 people a day from Monday to Friday.

A Health and Social Services spokesman said the department had taken the precautionary step of closing the building because the health and safety of their clients was paramount.

‘The collapse of the ceiling at the Meadows Day Centre today serves to highlight that the facilities for mental health patients at the Castel Hospital are past their sell-by date and that there is an urgent need for new facilities to be built as soon as possible,’ he said.

The ceiling is in a corridor in the centre.

The spokesman said the building had already been repaired, insofar as budgets had allowed.

The incident was not a question of lack of maintenance, he said.

‘Until the specialist contractor inspects the site and reports his findings, we are unable to say how bad the damage is or estimate the cost and extent of the repairs.’

The centre is a detached building at the back of the Castel Hospital site.