Dundee City Council’s chief executive has apologised for a £4 million roofing blunder as councillors agree for an immediate independent inquiry.
Speaking at a committee meeting to discuss the error, Gregory Colgan said he wants to “apologise sincerely” to all tenants and residents affected.
Dundee councillors of all parties agreed at a meeting of the city council’s policy and resources committee on Monday night that an independent inquiry must be carried out after hundreds of homes fell beneath legal standards.
Leader of the council John Alexander and Labour leader Kevin Keenan joined forces to demand an investigation.
Liberal Democrat leader Fraser Macpherson said that an update on the issue needs to be brought back to councillors by next February.
He also spoke about the anger all round of the shocking waste of public money and drew attention to other services the £4.4m could have been spent on.
Referring to the council’s recent decision to withdraw the city’s Blether Bus for the elderly, he said the money could have funded this for 88 years.
‘Gross error’ condemned
Along with Conservative leader Derek Scott, the councillors condemned what has already been described as a “gross error” that will cost the taxpayer £4.4 million to rectify.
As revealed exclusively by The Courier a week ago, roof installations carried out by the council between 2015 and 2019 were not carried out to the required safety standard.
It means workers will need to revisit the properties to carry out the work again, wasting huge resources.
Moving that an independent review must be carried out John Alexander said: “The committee requires officers to obtain an independent and external view, in addition to the internal audit process, to provide assurance that any and all failures identified within this report and any subsequent findings that stem from the internal audit investigations are fully and unquestionably addressed.
“Such work should reinforce accountability, transparency and confidence in service delivery.”
He added: “The committee instructs officers to provide a detailed overview of how the corrective actions detailed differ from those undertaken during the roofing work carried out between 2015 and 2019.
“This work must be undertaken as quickly as possible with an update by February 2022.”
Addressing the issue, the council’s chief executive Gregory Colgan said the situation should not have happened.
He said: “I wish to apologise sincerely for the significant inconvenience that the further work needed will cause and I am grateful for the patience and understanding of those affected.”
Kevin Keenan proposed a similar amendment but agreed to work alongside the administration leader to get a speedy resolution.
Mr Keenan said he was also keen to find out if any further similar problems were yet to emerge.
£4.4 million work needed
A report to the council’s policy and resources committee by the council’s executive director of city development, Robin Presswood, and executive director of neighbourhood services, Elaine Zwirlein, explains the full extent of the problem.
The report states: “The purpose of this report is to inform committee on a review of working practices on roofs installed by Construction Services (CS) and inspected by the Council Clerk of Works (CoW) in the period 2015 to 2019.”
The problem surrounds a change in British Safety Standard regulations in 2015 that the council failed to pick up until late 2019.
Papers leaked to The Courier reveal the full extent of the issue — affecting 262 owners and 894 tenants.
The report before the committee on Monday night said: “Officers have concluded that the roof installations during this period did not meet best practice as set out in the British Standards.
“Works to be undertaken to bring the affected roofs up to the standard recommended in British Standards is an estimated £4.4m.”
Bid to reassure
In a bid to reassure councillors that action had already been taken to attempt to answer what had gone wrong and to make sure it can’t happen again Mr Presswood said that six significant steps had already been taken.
He said these were:
- Services have amended their approach over quality management
- An internally co-ordinated programme of professional audits was carried out
- Design information is now enhanced to highlight the full requirements of British Standards
- A full review of all housing projects carried out by the council to ensure there are no further issues
- Clerk of work checking procedures have been enhanced
- Records and photographs of each stage of works is now utilised prior to final site checks
Lessons learned
Mrs Zwirlein admitted: “Lessons have been learned across all parts of our services.”
She also moved to reassure councillors, tenants and residents that there were “rigorous” standards applying to gas and electrical safety in all properties connected to the council.
Mr Alexander concluded: “I want this thoroughly and independently investigated as quickly as possible.”
