MSP DEMANDS ANSWERS ON NORTH WEST COMMUNITY CAMPUS

Following the injury of a second child at a Dumfries school Joan McAlpine MSP has revealed that she was still waiting for a reply after raising her concerns with the council a week ago.

 

The MSP revealed that she wrote to the Chief Executive of Dumfries and Galloway Council on 29 August after the first child was injured by a falling door.

 

She has still to receive a reply.

 

Ms McAlpine’s letter to Gavin Stevenson asked if the council had learned the lessons of the failure of the DG1 leisure centre project that was criticised in a damning expert report by Professor John Cole earlier this year.

 

Professor Cole was highly critical of the failure of council officers to independently scrutinise the quality of construction at DG1 and Ms McAlpine has demanded to know whether these lessons were learned when building the North West Community Campus, which has now been closed after a second child was injured by a falling whiteboard.

 

In her letter she demanded assurances on the quality and safety of the campus. 

 

Ms McAlpine said:

 

“I am angry that more than a week after my letter to the chief executive another child has been injured and I still don’t have a reply to critical questions about the health and safety of this building.  Dumfries and Galloway Council officers had the Cole report on DG1 to refer to, to ensure they did not repeat past mistakes.  Did they do this?  Was the North West campus constructed under the same “design and build” contract as DG1, which was criticised by Professor Cole? What sort of independent scrutiny of the building work took place?”

 

“I have been contacted by experts in the building trade very concerned by Grahams public explanation of photograph of a roof that appeared to have collapsed.  The experts tell me that Graham’s claims that the roof was subject to controlled demolition after a leak are simply not credible when scrutinising these photographs.  If this is the case, and the builder has not been honest about the roof collapse, how can we be assured that any part of the building is safe? The injury of a second child by a falling white board after another child was injured by a falling door suggests that there may be systemic problems with this building and it should be independently evaluated as soon as possible. 

 

“I shall be writing another letter to the chief executive asking for answers to these and other questions regarding safety.”

 

Letter from Joan McAlpine MSP to Gavin Stevenson attached