The Scottish Liberal Democrats have called proposed plans to ‘undercut’ classroom doors to improve airflow by the SNP a ‘staggering incompetence’.
On Friday, Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton took to Twitter to say he felt “compelled” to contact the City of Edinburgh Council’s director of education to seek assurances that doors would not be cut, adding the plans were 'staggering incompetence from the SNP'.
In his letter to education director, Amanda Hatton, Mr Cole-Hamilton wrote: “I seek your urgent assurance that despite the funded proposal, communicated by the Cabinet Secretary for Education in a letter to the Parliament’s Education Committee when she said: “we have assumed the door in the example space will need to be undercut to increase airflow, at a cost of £150, in line with business ventilation fund guidance. 2000 x £150 = £300,000” that you will not be undertaking a programme of works to ‘undercut’ classroom doors in Edinburgh?
“This suggestion has been roundly condemned by a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and I am very anxious that this clumsy intervention by the Cabinet Secretary will see irreparable damage on schools across the country.”
Last month the SNP’s education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville wrote to Holyrood’s education committee saying £5m had been allocated to a council ventilation fund, £300,000 of which was based on the potential need to “undercut” 2000 doors “to increase airflow” at a cost of £150 each.
Earlier this month, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon defended the door idea, saying it was “basic common sense” to help maximise “the natural flow of air in a room”.
Despite Ms Sturgeon answering multiple direct questions about chopping doors, and Ms Somerville’s own letter, the education secretary denied there was any such plan.
She told MSPs it had merely been an “example” of work that councils might carry out.
Ms Somerville blamed a “wilful misunderstanding” of the situation by opposition parties, and said that trimming doors had merely been one element of an “example scenario”.
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