The £30,000 local cost of fixing council house boilers which broke down during the winter will not be met by manufacturers because the units operated according to their capabilities, it has been revealed.
Residents of Ferguson Park in Rattray were among those left shivering through the most extreme temperatures when recently-installed condensing boilers broke down as external pipes froze.
Remedial work to ensure there is no repeat of this will cost £30,000, which Conservative councillor Mac Roberts said he had hoped could be recovered from manufacturer Worcester, Bosch but this was dashed by housing executive director David Burke.
He said, “We’ve been in a programme of rerouting the element that failed and I’m not clear we’ll be able to get that sum back from the manufacturer. It was simply the very extreme nature of the weather (that caused it).”
Mr Roberts, the opposition spokesman on housing and health, was unsatisfied, claiming more should have been spent on routing the condensate pipes through internal waste plumbing rather than directly outside.
He said, “These boilers were all installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions but failed when they were most needed.
“The council has bought large numbers of boilers from this manufacturer and we should be making it clear to them that any future orders will be in jeopardy if they do not make some contribution to our costs.”
Housing convener Councillor Peter Barratt accused his opposite number of “mud-slinging” over the issue and defended the council’s actions.
“The council installed the latest, most energy-efficient condensing boilers to provide tenants with the lowest possible heating bills, consistent with our efforts to tackle fuel poverty in our communities.
“The boiler shutdowns occurred due to the triggering of the safeguard mechanism when the externally vented condensate pipes froze. A rapid workaround solution to the problem was implemented to restore heating to the households and tenants affected.
“Councillor Roberts is well aware of all of this information and his questions regarding manufacturer liability are mischief-making. His criticism of selection and specification of the boilers is spurious.
“In a new-build situation it is straightforward to connect the boilers’ condensate pipes to existing waste plumbing. However, where boilers are being retro-fitted the disruption to installed kitchens and other fixings makes this more difficult, disruptive and expensive.
“This was not a localised problem isolated to Ferguson Park but was a national issue affecting 80,000 boiler installations across the country, according to information from Scottish Gas.”