Building defects found at another 71 Scottish schools

Construction defects similar to those that led to the collapse of a wall at Oxgangs Primary School in Edinburgh have been found on at least 71 more schools across Scotland, a BBC Scotland investigation has uncovered.

The collapse in January last year led to the closure of 17 schools in the city while remedial work was carried out.

All the schools were delivered following a £360 million deal between the City of Edinburgh Council and a private finance consortium under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

An independent report into the closures revealed issues such as poor construction quality, inadequate supervision and the inadequate use of wall ties led to the collapse at Oxgangs.

The inquiry also highlighted the likely possibility of the issues identified in Edinburgh to be more widespread.

Now a BBC investigation has revealed that work to deal with similar defects has since been carried out in at least 71 more schools across 15 local authority areas.

While most of the buildings have now been repaired, work on six of them is still to be completed.

Glasgow had 23 schools affected, including 22 built through PPP programmes and one under design-and-build.

Elsewhere, there were five in Aberdeenshire, four in Angus, five in Argyll and Bute, two in Clackmannanshire, three in Dundee, four in East Lothian, two in Fife, three in Inverclyde, one in North Lanarkshire, 10 in South Lanarkshire, three in Stirling and three in West Lothian.

Fears have now been raised that construction problems could be present at other schemes built under the PPP model such as hospitals and care homes.

Prof Alan Dunlop, a fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and a visiting professor at Robert Gordon University, said the potential scale of the issue was “frightening”.

He said: “The PPP financing process was not only used for schools, it was also used for hospitals and a number of public buildings, care homes, things like that. I’m wondering, if they found a similar problem in schools, are other things happening in other building type that have been used and building under PPP?

“And this is focusing primarily on wall ties and header ties - are there other elements of the building’s structure that are actually at fault? I find it difficult to believe it could only rest with wall ties and header ties.

“We have to review and re-think how we build these buildings, especially for our children.

“The only way we found out about Oxgangs was because the wall collapsed. If the wall hasn’t collapsed, we would never have been any the wiser - so we need intrusive surveys to find out just what on earth is going on.”

Ian Honeyman from the Scottish Building Federation agreed that there were “big implications” for the building industry.

He said: “The fundamental point that has to be addressed is that people have to have confidence in the buildings that are being produced, and also be confident that people are safe when they’re living or working in them.

“I don’t think it’s something that can be tackled by one individual company or one individual organisation - I think it has to be done by a combination of all organisations and people involved in the construction industry to look at the fundamental things that have gone wrong here, and look at how we can address it as an industry rather than as individuals.”

Mr Honeyman said the way work was signed off might need to be looked at.

He said: “The system itself in terms of the certification process requires ultimately one person to sign off a piece of paper called a completion certificate.

“Unfortunately there’s not one person involved in the whole project who is actually in a position that can do that, because it’s a combination of everybody - not one person can be on the site 24/7, see every piece of brick or steel or whatever else is put up, you can only be there so often.

“There are systems in place that are supposed to pick up these issues going through - but that relies on everyone in the chain to do what’s expected of them. And when things get missed, that can have an impact further down the chain, and ultimately I think that’s part of what’s happened here.

“I think the whole industry has to look at the system and manage the system better than we have, as it’s indicated at the moment.”

The Scottish Futures Trust is the arms-length company set up by the Scottish Government to “deliver value for money across public sector infrastructure investment” and oversee contracts like PPP and NPD.

It wrote to local authorities and public bodies highlighting the Edinburgh inquiry report so each council could review its approach. The trust also noted the inquiry’s recommendation that intrusive surveys were “the most reliable way of identifying similar issues which are not always clear from visual inspection alone”.

A spokesman said: “We are now engaged as part of the Construction Procurement Review Team with Scottish government considering the recommendations of the report, in particular as they relate to procurement, supervision of construction and retention of as-built information with a view to producing updated guidance where considered necessary to reinforce the lessons which all engaged in the industry should take from the inquiry report.”

Moray Council has confirmed that it does not feature on the list of local authority areas where defects have been found in schools built under the PPP arrangements.

In Moray, two schools – Elgin Academy and Keith Primary – have been built under PPP in recent years.

A Moray Council spokesman said regular programmed and reactive maintenance was carried out annually on both schools.

He 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.”

An independent consultant had been appointed to carry out intrusive surveys to ascertain structural integrity following media attention around the Edinburgh schools.

“The surveys found no immediate cause for concern or health and safety issues,” added the spokesman.