Probe Finds Defects At More Than 70 Scottish Schools

A BBC investigation has discovered over 70 Scottish schools have had construction defects similar to those found in Edinburgh schools last year.

The wall of Oxgangs Primary School collapsed in April last year, prompting the closure of 17 schools across the city to carry out repair works.

An independent report by industry expert Professor John Cole CBE concluded various issues were to blame, such as poor construction quality, insufficient independent quality assurance and ineffective quality industry assurance measures.

All the schools were built under a multi-million pound deal between the City of Edinburgh Council and a private finance consortium under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.


Now, a BBC investigation has discovered at least 71 Scottish schools in 15 council areas have had to carry out similar remedial work as the schools in Edinburgh.

All local authorities in the country were asked by BBC Scotland if repair work involving wall ties or "significant structural issues" had been done at PPP schools, or others built under schemes such as non-profit distributing (NPD) or "design and build", in the past 18 months.

Once council, Moray Council, has confirmed two schools built under the PPP arrangements - Elgin Academy and Keith Primary – had work carried out, but this was part of regular programmed and reactive maintenance.

A spokesman said: "These maintenance works also encompass lifecycle works which involve the replacement and/or renewal of major plant.

"Together, the maintenance/lifecycle works are extensive and involve in excess of 1000 individual tasks, some of which involve the regular review of wall ties, header ties and other structural supports."

(LM)