THERE are times when I genuinely despair of the opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament. The brouhaha over school doors is one of them ("Ministers accused of ‘rewriting history’ after denying plan to chop class doors", The Herald, February 9) is one of them. It’s more than 20 years since I last designed a secondary school, so it’s news to me that classroom doors are fire doors – at least according to Douglas Ross. A quick check of the current building regulations reveals that there is no such requirement.
Equally puzzling is the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service’s belief that classroom doors should be fire doors in order to protect the pupils in a classroom from a fire which occurs in the corridor outside. This seems to suggest a new "stay put" philosophy in the event of the fire alarm going off rather than the norm of instigating immediate evacuation of pupils and staff. If it’s to protect pupils in the corridor from a classroom fire source, then you already have corridor fire doors to do that.
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville explained in her letter to a Holyrood committee that to improve ventilation one option was to undercut doors. It’s a compromise, but I’ve seen it done in a number of situations where an increased air flow is required due to an unforeseen problem. As such it’s a cost-effective way of remedying that problem, subject to confirmation from the door manufacturer that it is permissible without compromising the door’s performance. A 10mm gap is normally the maximum recommended.
Another of the options suggested was to fit mechanical extract fans. But if the windows are closed (as would often be the case in winter) then you will need a source of replacement air to maintain an adequate air change rate. That’s why you would need to undercut the door.
This is essentially a Government intervention to mitigate the failure of many councils to install an adequate ventilation system when they were replacing the ageing schools under their control. Many of these schools were built in the last 30 years. In the intervening period there have been follow-up reports on the performance of these schools by the Scottish Futures Trust. A common feature in these reports has been the failure of naturally ventilated rooms to perform as required.
Guidance on school design issued by the then Scottish Executive in 2007 stated quite clearly that natural ventilation should be augmented with mechanical ventilation to compensate for overheating issues in the summer and for having to close windows on ultra-cold days in the winter. However, this guidance does not appear to have been followed, hence the current problem. Covid-19 has simply brought into focus these local authority procurement failures. Yet rather than debating the options to deal with this new problem, all we see each and every day is uninformed political point-scoring from opposition MSPs.
Robert Menzies, Falkirk.
WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR ENGINEERS?
IT was in September 2018 that you first published the news of potential delays to the two new ferries costing £97 million from Ferguson Marine. It was suggested that the cost overrun would be high and that there would be a delivery delay of two years. The latest projected cost is £300m.
Since then there has been a rapid slipway descent of millions of public money being spent in new management. The expert who was to fix it all, has left having trousered almost £2m; the chairman and another non-executive are director soon to depart.
The latest news of electric cables (possibly some 900) having to be ripped out of the hull due to their too-short length beggars belief ("Fury as short cables place doubts over ferry delivery", The Herald, February 11).
The First Minister states that this problem occurred in late 2018 and early 2019, before nationalisation. It would appear that for political reasons a problem of this dimension was not noted when presumably due diligence was carried out prior to nationalisation. Even now there is a stunning lack of clarity. As prophesied, no heads have rolled, although we have been promised "lessons will be learned".
Are we as a nation now incapable of completing large public projects on time and within their budgets? I site the Scottish Parliament building, the Edinburgh trams, the Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children, the outstanding problems with the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
It would appear that we simply have lost the ability to provide suitable training for engineers of calibre. Perhaps we shall never benefit again from the likes of John Rannie of John Brown's, Ross Belch of Lithgows, or the genial Irish manager who ruled Fairfield for so many years.
Robin Johnston, Newton Mearns.
FIX POTHOLES, THEN GEORGE SQUARE
WHEN I read the article about making changes in George Square ("Cars, statues, seats, green space? Views wanted on George Square", The Herald, February 11) I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I admit that I don't live in Glasgow but I do drive in Glasgow.
Spending millions in rearranging the statues whilst the potholes get wider, deeper and more numerous, is like moving the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Once all the potholes are repaired – amongst other things – then by all means have a look at George Square, but not until then.
George Smith, Clydebank.
MAN WHO BROKE THE MOULD
JUST to put the record right, Sir Alexander Fleming was not born at Lochfield Farm (Letters, February 11), it was Alexander Fleming who was born there. On a more serious note the letter prompted me to read again about this modest man’s contribution to human health. As we approach the centenary of his discovery in 2028 I sincerely hope that The Herald and others will mark this history-changing man’s life and remarkable work.
Alastair Clark, Stranraer.
MARRIAGE LINES
I NOTE Thelma Edward’s perceptive observations on the pitfalls attending the “culture of wifely interference” (Letters, February 11), citing Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution and closer to home possibly in part the travails besetting our beleaguered PM, but with domestic harmony to the forefront I am happy to counter with “Behind every successful man there is usually a surprised woman”.
R Russell Smith, Largs.
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