Council attacked over decision to use PPP

West Lothiam Council's decision to go for a 30-year, £45m PPP project on six of its schools has come under a fierce attack today (Friday) after it has been discovered that four of them opened nearly a week late and saw one fatality and a serious injury on site.

Blasting the council for "letting down its community" for the delays, the Scottish National Party (SNP) also hinted that the accidents on site "might" have been caused due to "pressures" in making up for late running work.

The accident, which happened during a refurbishment contract on 10 August at the Linlithgow Primary School, just over a week before it was due to open, saw workers from Edinburgh-based United Demolition crushed by a falling concrete wall lintel.

However, West Lothian Council has strongly denied that this was the cause of the delay to the school's opening and blamed the problem on a "slight overrun" of an intense seven-week building phase.

A SNP spokesman said: "This is a terrible occurrence, especially when a death is involved. Yet again PPPs have picked up a bad name through the rush for profits and cutting construction times."

The three other delayed schools being refurbished by the Alpha Schools consortium, and made up of Morrison Construction, its sister company AWGPIL, Barclays Bank and the Bank of Ireland, are the Bathgate Academy, Broxburn Academy and the Whitburn Academy.

Low Port Primary Linlinthgow was the only successful refurbished school to open on time, with the only new build project for Linlithgow Bridge Primary School successfully opening for the new term on 20 August.

The 16-month projects are due to be completed in November.