SIX schools and a nursery are among a number of public buildings in Edinburgh where construction defects have been found following the shock closure of 17 schools two years ago.
Yesterday it emerged one in eight properties inspected by the council had thrown up similar issues to those which caused a wall to collapse at a city primary school in 2016.
Now it can be revealed these include three primaries, two special schools, a secondary and a nursery – as well as two libraries.
Inspectors will examine hundreds more buildings across the city over the next 18 months in a bid to ensure their structural safety.
READ MORE: Construction defects found at schools, libraries and community centres across Edinburgh
Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, who represents Edinburgh West, said the findings were “scandalous”.
She said: “When it comes to the safety of our children, it is the council's duty to ensure that all buildings meet the highest standards.
“I find it absolutely scandalous that, according to this report, proper checks were not made that the building work was up to standard and properly maintained.
“It's simply not good enough, and if departments are under-resourced that has to be addressed.
“The Scottish Government must also accept that its stranglehold on local authority funding has not helped. Rather than pass the buck to councils or Westminster they must take responsibility for improving council funding.”
Nine tons of masonry fell from Oxgangs Primary School during Storm Gertrude in January 2016, with experts warning children could have been killed but for timing and luck.
READ MORE: Construction defects found at schools, libraries and community centres across Edinburgh
Its shock closure led to safety fears at 17 other schools across the city built as part of the same private finance initiative.
Checks carried out at public buildings since then have uncovered 20 other examples of similar defects, which relate to ties used to secure walls.
Faults have been discovered at Carrickvale Community Centre, Cramond, Currie and Towerbank primary schools, and Queensferry High School.
Flora Stevenson nursery and Gorgie Mills and Oaklands special schools were also affected, as well as Drumbrae leisure centre, Granton and Muirhouse libraries, Royston care home and Valley Park community centre.
READ MORE: Construction defects found at schools, libraries and community centres across Edinburgh
Tests are still ongoing at Castlegreen care home, Gracemount leisure centre and Bankhead road depot.
Council chiefs will check a further 226 buildings and extensions constructed between 1976 and 1995 as part of the next round of safety inspections.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel