Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Top appointments for site recovery group
The new site recovery group overseeing the Buchanan and St Ambrose high schools campus will meet for the first time this week, and has appointed its independent chair and a scientific adviser.
Depute lord lieutenant Terry Currie will chair the group, while Strathclyde University chemistry reader Dr Christine Davidson will provide expert input.
Establishment of the group was a key recommendation in the independent review report into ground conditions and safety at the campus, and its members will also include pupils, staff, parents and other users of the Townhead Road campus.
They will consider reports on the schools’ ground and maintenance, gas membrane condition, and water and indoor air quality – and raise any concerns with North Lanarkshire Council.
Members will also question council officials, consult independent experts on the results of the monitoring process, raise health, safety or maintenance concerns, and publish reports for the campus communities and the council’s education committee.
Site recovery group chair Mr Currie spent most of his working life with British Steel, latterly with a subsidiary to regenerate regions which suffered from steel plant closures, and with Scottish Enterprise.
He was a founder member of the Lanarkshire Civic Pride campaign in 1991 and previously served on the boards of New Lanarkshire Ltd, the Scottish manufacturing advisory service, and Scottish business in the community, as well as spending eight years as a non-executive director of NHS Lanarkshire.
Mr Currie currently chairs the State Hospitals Board for Scotland and the Scottish steelworkers’ memorial committee.
He said: “I’m very much looking forward to getting started with the group.
“I agree with the review authors that the group has a key role to play in restoring confidence and in receiving monitoring reports on water and air quality from the council.
“We will also be able to hear any concerns from the campus community and formally engage with the council to raise these.”
Scientific adviser Dr Davidson is reader in pure and applied chemistry at Strathclyde University, carrying out research in environmental analytical chemistry, especially new methods of assessing risk to human health and the environment from pollutants in urban soils, inhalable airborne particles and contaminated land, sediments and waters.
Council chief executive Des Murray said: “It’s essential that the group is independent and is able to have open and frank discussions, and the appointment of such an experienced chair is a significant step forward so I’m delighted that Terry Currie has agreed to serve this group.
“I’m also very pleased that Christine Davidson has agreed to be the group’s scientific adviser – Dr Davidson is a genuine expert and her input and advice will be invaluable.
“Group members will be able to call for reports from any part of the council and feed back formally.
“The council will not have a representative group member because its independence is so crucial, but we will ensure, through a liaison officer, that the group’s views are heard.”
An independent review of the school site’s safety was carried out during the summer holidays after rising public concern about health conditions including five reported cancer cases among staff members in recent years, and a pupil found to have elevated arsenic levels losing his sight.
Hundreds of parents had attended a public meeting in June to air their concerns, including about the issue of discoloured blue drinking water; while staff represented by the NASUWT union went on strike at the end of last term and the opening days of the new school year as they sought safety assurances.
Review panel co-chair Dr Margaret Hannah last month shared the panel’s findings that the site’s water is of drinking quality, the methane membrane layer is suitable with no gases being detected and that all but one of more than 60 soil samples from across the site pose no concerns.
Experts identified elevated levels of industrial chemical polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCBs) at one sample pit area, which has since been removed; but the report concluded that there was “no causal link” between attending the school and the health concerns.
Their recommendations were that further water quality sampling should be carried out and that information on the methane membrane should be published; along with the establishment of the “fully participative site recovery group” including parent, staff and union representatives plus independent experts to monitor water, maintenance and gas membrane issues as well as investigating indoor air quality issues.
It will produce an annual site assessment and take any required action, provide a channel for concerns and “to support future confidence in the site”, with Dr Hannah saying: “It’s trying to bring a sense of ownership back to the school and community.”