WATCH: Calls for ScotGov schools safety checks
Top architects want schools safety assurances from local councils
Last updated 2nd Feb 2018
Top architects are calling for urgent safety checks of privately-funded schools, drowning out Holyrood's announcement today of almost 400-new trainee teachers.
The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) claims lives are at risk after a damning report into Edinburgh schools found it was "luck" that no school kids were killed by a wall collapse at Oxgangs Primary.
Now Scotland's professional body for architects wants local councils across the country to carry out full inspections of all privately-financed buildings.
Neil Baxter is the RIAS Secretary. He told MFR News: "This is a very important report. In fact, probably the most important report into a building failure of the last decade. It's crucially important that people don't simply put it on a shelf, and public authorities have a duty to act
"We cannot have another instance like the collapse of the primary school wall last January, because that could easily have resulted in the death of a child, and that's not something that as a society we can tolerate or allow to happen.
"This will be costly - there is not question about that, but how much more costly if something goes terribly wrong in the future? Those who haven't read and understood this report would have a certain liability."
On a visit to Elgin Academy earlier, Deputy First Minister John Swinney - who's also the Scottish Government's Education Secretary - told us: "Local authorities have got the statutory obligation to run our schools, so they've got to take that seriously. It's their responsibility.
"The schools that are built now are built to a very different construction model to the ones that were built that caused the problems in Edinburgh.
"We can make sure that where contractors have obligations to fulfil, that they are fulfilled, and they're monitored and checked accordingly, and that's exactly what ministers have required of local authorities."
Our interview comes as Wick Campus continues to experience ongoing issues connected with contractor Morrison Construction, meanwhile Inverness Royal Academy, which is also built by Morrison Construction, continues to suffer issues which are raising safety concerns, and in some cases impacting on lessons.
WATCH: John Swinney was asked by MFR News reporter Bryan Rutherford whether ScotGov should be doing more to hold builders to account...