Angry parents demand action on closed schools

Council holds emergency meetings with consortium as fiasco affects 9,000 pupils

ANGRY parents have turned on council officials after thousands of children were told to stay at home as safety fears forced the closure of 17 schools in Edinburgh.

Yesterday, council chiefs held emergency meetings with directors of the private finance consortium responsible for the buildings after it was unable to guarantee their safety.

Some 9,000 children have been affected following the closures of 10 primaries, five secondaries and two additional support needs schools.

The Edinburgh Schools Partnership (ESP) said on Friday it had concerns about “serious defects” with some of the buildings built and managed under a £130 million public-private partnership (PPP) programme.

The City of Edinburgh Council told parents the schools would be closed today, while schooling arrangements for this coming week are still unclear.

With many pupils preparing for their exams, one parent said on the council’s Facebook page: “I obviously want my son to be educated in a safe place and CEC [the council] should have already done that through building control at the time of signing the building off. But they need to put measures in place now and not next week for all the kids who will be panicking about revision.”

The council said it was focusing on the secondary schools affected – Gracemount, Craigmount, Firrhill, Drummond and the Royal High – as a priority, with the hope a clearer picture would be available by tomorrow.

It said more detailed structural surveys, arranged by ESP, would continue throughout the course of this week, with information for each school being confirmed as soon as possible.

Pupils at Oxgangs Primary, St Peter’s Primary and Braidburn School continue to use alternative accommodation after inspections revealed structural problems. Alternative arrangements for other schools were being “actively looked into” and the council will update parents on a daily basis. The Howdenhall Secure Unit, which was also affected, has stayed operational as only the gym area was identified as needing remedial work.

The council has been in regular contact with the Scottish Government and other institutions, including Edin- burgh University, which have offered additional support.

Council chief executive Andrew Kerr said the authority had offered ESP help to complete the surveys as soon as possible. He said: “I also reminded them of their contractual and financial obligations and want to assure Edinburgh residents they will not be left footing the bill. The safety of children and our staff is our main priority.

“I fully recognise the significant inconvenience caused by these closures but I am sure parents will understand.”

The issue came to light in January, when part of a wall collapsed at Oxgangs Primary during a storm. In March, the school was closed after inspections revealed a problem with construction.

Three more schools built under the same public-private partnership were then closed within the same week following checks.

An ESP spokesman said: “The standard of construction carried out by the building contractor is completely unacceptable and we are now undertaking full structural surveys on all PPP schools. We would like to apologise to parents and pupils for all of the uncertainty and inconvenience caused.”

The four Edinburgh schools closed due to structural concerns in the last month were built by Miller Construction, which was acquired by Galliford Try in 2014.

Education Secretary Angela Constance has written to all local authorities and asked them to carry out any necessary checks as soon as possible.

Inspections have been taking place of other schools in Glasgow, Fife and Inverclyde that were built by Miller.

Glasgow City Council confirmed the contractor had verbally reassured its officials there was nothing of concern, but had taken the decision to undertake more surveys this week. A spokeswoman said the city’s schools would open as normal on April 18.

A Fife Council spokeswoman said that “thorough inspections undertaken during the holiday period had raised no structural issues with our buildings” and all schools were expected to open today.

The issues follow an unrelated incident in Edinburgh when 12-year-old pupil Keane Wallis-Bennett died when a changing room wall collapsed on her at Liberton High School in 2014.