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Abroad

Veteran Member
Councils across the country are being urged to check the safety of school buildings after sudden closures in Edinburgh on safety grounds.

Officials ordered the closure of 17 schools and a community centre on Friday.

It is not yet known when they will re-open.

It is now feared that all schools built under the same private finance contract could pose a safety risk to children and staff.

Four schools in Edinburgh have closed due to structural concerns in the last month.

Miller, the contractors who built the schools ten years ago, were working under the Public Private Partnership 1 project.

A spokeswoman for ESP said: "While carrying out remedial works on Friday afternoon, a new issue came to light at two schools - Oxgangs and St Peter's - relating to an absence of header ties in sections of the building.

"The standard of construction carried out by the building contractor is completely unacceptable and we are now undertaking full structural surveys to determine whether this issue is more widespread.

She added: "Edinburgh Schools Partnership will accept full financial responsibility for investigating and resolving these issues.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36005962
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Balfron High School in Stirlingshire has been partially closed due to structural problems.

A total of 440 pupils will not be attending the school in the coming week as a result.

During precautionary checks, issues with walls in the stairwell, gym and atrium were discovered.

The school was built under a private finance initiative about 15 years ago but not by the firm involved with recent problems with Edinburgh schools.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-36235690
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More than 200 schools built in Scotland under private finance initiative (PFI) schemes are now at least partially owned by offshore investment funds.

Under PFI, the private sector builds and manages school buildings in return for a fee, typically over 25-30 years.

In one project in Edinburgh, 17 new schools were built, with the council paying £1.5m a month.

Dexter Whitfield, from the European Services Strategy Unit, told a BBC Scotland investigation the Edinburgh PPP1 scheme was now owned by four different companies.

"Those four different companies are located offshore in Guernsey and Jersey, and they are basically controlled by shareholders," he said.

A critic of PFI, he has described the projects as "wealth machines", adding: "There are an awful lot of people making very substantial sums of money out of it."

The 17 schools built in Edinburgh under PPP1 were closed for repairs earlier this year after construction faults were found.

The problems - with wall and header ties, used to hold exterior and interior walls together and attach them to the rest of the building - first became apparent when part of a wall at Oxgangs Primary fell during stormy weather.

About 7,600 primary and secondary school children in the capital were eventually affected.

An independent inquiry into the matter will consider whether the private finance method contributed to the structural issues with the Buildings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37135611
 
This doesn't surprise me in the least. People say a lot of hateful things about the ineptitude of the public sector but, as someone who has spent a 30 year career approximately evenly spit between public service and private sector engineering, construction, design and project management, I can say unequivocally that I did less evil as a public servant.
 
Why were these buildings not inspected all those years ago before they were opened for occupancy??!! Sounds like a really inept company did shoddy work or didn't have the experience necessary to do this building project...to make a grand amount of money in the scheme of things.
 
I can never understand a word any Scottish person speaks, and they speak English, sort of. If I am watching a Scottish film, I have to activate the close caption option. I say...just forget about the schools, and allow these young miscreants to roam about freely. No one will be able to understand anything they say anyway.
 
Why were these buildings not inspected all those years ago before they were opened for occupancy??!! Sounds like a really inept company did shoddy work or didn't have the experience necessary to do this building project...to make a grand amount of money in the scheme of things.

Building inspectors don't appear to do much at all. That's why my house was passed when the dryer vent had been bricked over. Pathetic lazy shits, 99% of them.
 
I love Scottish accents! They're, like, sexy as hell. And so are women who love all things Scottish. :D
 
I can never understand a word any Scottish person speaks, and they speak English, sort of. If I am watching a Scottish film, I have to activate the close caption option. I say...just forget about the schools, and allow these young miscreants to roam about freely. No one will be able to understand anything they say anyway.
Aww, c'mon, @Pete Bondurant

We got haggis and log tossing! So, ya know-cool. :hilarious:


Those lowland Scots, well, THEY are kind of trifling.:rolleyes: ;)

We highland clans are where it's at. #clanMcLeod. #holdfast
 
The headline says:
Scottish Schools Built By " Cowboys"

I need an explination of why!

We refer to a builder who is unqualified and does shoddy work as a "cowboy", because by the time you go looking for him to complain about the quality of the job he has done, he is away into the sunset.....
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Urgent safety checks should be carried out on hundreds of public buildings constructed after the year 2000, architects have warned.

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) said a lack of scrutiny over building techniques meant lives could be at risk.

It follows the publication of a report which raised concerns about building standards at 17 schools in Edinburgh.

The Scottish government said it had written to councils about the issue.

Prof John Cole said the problems were not the result of one "rogue bricklayer", but were instead linked to the absence of proper inspections by the local council and building contractors.

RIAS said it "would be naive" to assume similar issues would not be present in hundreds of council projects constructed since the year 2000 across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-38966388
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The City of Edinburgh Council "no longer has full confidence" in the consortium in charge of the maintenance and repair of 17 schools built under the private public partnership scheme.

The council is now calling for regular inspections by independent surveyors of the schools and to review the contract.

Council officials said they want to ensure Edinburgh School Partnership (ESP) is delivering its obligations.

ESP declined an invitation to attend a meeting next Wednesday with parents.

A pupil was hit by a tile that fell from the ceiling of Oxgangs Primary in February and the roof was damaged by wind in March.

The council said it had been told by ESP that the building had since been made safe.

But inspections showed that this was not the case.

Two years ago, nine tonnes of masonry fell from a wall at the school - prompting a Scotland-wide review of building projects.

The incidents earlier this year involved loose flashing on the roof and internal ceiling tiles.

Councillor Ian Perry, said: "Given the latest series of incidents at Oxgangs Primary School, the council no longer has full confidence that the present inspection and maintenance regime carried out by Edinburgh Schools Partnership (ESP) is sufficient to ensure the safety of the teachers, support staff, pupils and parents who are using the PPP1 school buildings.

"(We need to) review the contract and ensure that ESP deliver their obligations in full to ensure that all PPP1 schools are safe and compliant as per the contract.

"This should involve the regular inspection of all PPP1 schools by an independent surveyor, where considered necessary by the council.

"ESP should carry out any remedial work promptly and this should be checked to the satisfaction of the council, using independent inspections."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-43923193
 
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