WATCH: Petition for Wick Campus safety review gathers pace
Have you signed Caithness kids' school safety petition?
Last updated 2nd Feb 2018
There's growing pressure on Highland Council to call safety inspectors into Wick Campus, as a petition for an independent review of the controversial overdue facility gathers pace.
Dozens of people have signed it, including Highland MSP Edward Mountain, whose calls for a Scottish Government inquiry into safety concerns were rejected by ministers.
But despite Holyrood's claims that it is a matter for Highland Council, petition creator Andrew Sinclair is warning ScotGov not to fob off families.
He told MFR News: "The Scottish Government is obviously the highest authority when it comes to education, obviously it has a lot of money invested in this project some £17million, so it's definitely in their interest to ensure that it is completed to the highest possible standard."
LISTEN: Andrew Sinclair set up the petition...
The petition posted on change.org is 'calling for an independent review into the safety and construction of the £48million project in order to reassure parents, pupils, and the public that the construction of the new school is being handled properly, is being finished to a suitably high standard, and is safe for pupils and staff to occupy.'
The controversial project has so many things wrong with it, that the development will not be opening until at least after the Easter school holidays.
Morrison Construction handed over the building to Highland Council as completed, but the local authority has admitted that the facility is still not actually ready for kids to move into, and start learning.
The local authority claims that "no safety issues are a factor" in the council's decision to further delay the opening of Wick Campus, but that claim comes after an MFR News investigation in January revealed scaffolding underneath a stairwell, hidden inside plasterboard walls...
Our findings, which were taken to local government officials, led to the walls in question being broken through, to prove our claim that scaffolding had been left underneath a stairwell, covered up by plasterboard.
At the time Morrison Construction denied that the scaffolding was left to support the structure and claimed that it had just been abandoned because it was not needed.
Highland Council ordered the scaffolding to be removed, and to date, both the local authority and Morrison Construction maintains the claim that the scaffolding was surplus, and had nothing to do with ensuring safety.
The building company continues to refuse to talk to MFR News in a recorded interview about the ongoing issues.
Among the people who have backed the petition by adding their names to it is Mandy More. She posted: 'My daughter is due to start this school when it opens. She is only six-years-old, and has even expressed her concerns regarding the safety of the building saying "the school might fall on my head," and also "it might squash me and my friends."
'How are we supposed to reassure our children on the safety on the building when we as parents/grandparents/siblings have been given no reassurance ourselves?'
"My daughter, six-years-old, expressed her concerns saying "the school might fall on my head," and "it might squash me and my friends." MANDY MORE
And Emma Mowatt added: 'My daughter will attend this campus and I think that all using the facilities should have no concerns about how the safety of the building.'
A Highland Council spokesperson said: "The Council has provided assurance regarding the safety of the Campus, and that no safety issues are a factor in the Council’s decision to defer operations."
Project management firm Hub North Scotland added: "The decision not to open Wick Community Campus to pupils is purely a matter for The Highland Council.
"Independent Certification in accordance with the DBFM contract was achieved on Tuesday, 10 January, stating that the new Wick Community Campus facility was completed and ready for occupation, notwithstanding ongoing snagging issues which are not uncommon in this kind of project and do not impact on the functioning of the school and community buildings.
"Configuration of the external IT network is being progressed directly by The Highland Council and its IT partner and forms no part of the Hub North Scotland contract."