A councillor has called for transparency after it emerged changing rooms at a Dundee school built under PPP will be shut for three months.
The changing rooms at St Paul’s Academy – built under public private partnership – have been closed since April 29 with Robertson Facilities Management warning tiles had become “de-bonded”.
However parents have voiced serious safety concerns in the wake of school closures in Edinburgh where entire buildings were found to be unsafe.
It has also been claimed some pupils are getting just 10 minutes of PE as a result of the fault and are forced to change in classrooms.
Councillor Laurie Bidwell, education spokesman for Labour on Dundee City Council, said he was yet to see the survey report that was recently completed on eight Dundee schools built under the PPP arrangement, including St Paul’s.
The schools, which are maintained by Robertson, were inspected in April following the issues in Edinburgh and were certified safe.
The company stressed that the faulty tiles at St Paul’s are in no way related to the structural integrity of the building, built by Robert McAlpine.
Ian Gibson, managing director at Robertson, said: “Some changing rooms have been closed at the school since April 29 as a result of tiles coming away from the wall.
“A programme of repairs to reopen the temporarily closed changing rooms is soon to get underway, following which improvements will be made to the remaining changing rooms.
“Changing facilities remain available for pupils.
“The closures are not in any way related to building integrity and the buildings have been certified safe for pupils and staff.”
One concerned mother, who did not wish to be named, said parents had been left in the dark.
She added: “The changing rooms have been shut for weeks, but the school are not saying anything.
“Kids are getting changed in classrooms and you can’t have that.
“I’ve spoken to my friends about it and we all want more answers
“The building might not be safe and my son is only getting 10 minutes of PE because he is getting changed in the classroom, going to the gym and then coming back to get changed.
“We’re not being told anything and we want more answers.”
Strathmartine councillor Ian Borthwick has supported calls for more transparency in the monitoring, tracking and reporting of safety issues related to school buildings in Dundee.
He said: “It is absolutely essential that parents are kept fully informed about closures to areas in schools.
“An absence of information can lead to worrying conclusions being made if people are not kept up to date with what is happening.”
A spokesperson for Dundee City Council said: “PE is still being provided for pupils as the school manages the situation in the meantime.”
Public private partnerships are contracts between public bodies, such as councils, and private companies.
The private company assumes the cost of constructing a public building and recoups the money by “renting” it back to the public over a number of years, eventually earning more than the initial cost of the building.
St Paul’s Academy opened in January 2009, after the merging of Lawside R.C. Academy and St Saviour’s R.C. High School.
