The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Plea to staff over roofs repair saga
Areview into Dundee City Council’s £4.4 million roofing repair error has shown an “apparent lack of knowledge” on safety standards. Findings of an independent inquiry call for staff to start asking “obvious questions” to stop mistakes from slipping through the cracks on major projects.
The investigation relates to a blunder that led to hundreds of council homes falling below safety standards.
The problem was sparked by a change in British Safety Standard regulations in 2015 that the council failed to pick up until late 2019.
A 44-page report has now been released by auditors Pricewaterhousecoopers, listing a number of improvements needed to prevent a repeat of the errors, which affected 262 owners and 894 tenants.
The report, going before Dundee City Council’s scrutiny committee next week, acknowledged the situation is “rare” and says recommendations are already being implemented to stop a repeat.
The report also looks to answer how the situation was allowed to happen.
It says: “A number of factors may have contributed to a failure to identify that the roofs were not being fitted to the revised British Standard.”
The report concludes: “The roofing project issue was a rare incident that occurred due to multiple issues coming together at the same time.
“Under normal circumstances, one would expect that the structures and processes originally in place would prevent such an issue.
“The apparent lack of knowledge captured relating to the change in the British Standard for slating and tiling was a decisive factor and meant that the controls in place were ineffective for this particular project.
“If the areas for improvement identified are addressed, along with improvements already made, the risk of a future issue of this nature occurring will be much reduced.”
An introduction to the report by Robert Emmott, the council’s executive director of corporate services, says improvements are already under way.
It adds: “Head of housing and construction is responsible for the implementation of the remaining actions, which are planned to be completed by the end of 2023.”