5.5  RESULTS OF EXTENDED SURVEYS AND DECISION TO CLOSE PHASE 2 PPP1 SCHOOLS

5.5.1  Preliminary information on the results of the wider surveys of Oxgangs Primary School was communicated by WRD to the City of Edinburgh Council on 15th March 2016. It indicated a wider presence of inadequate wall tie embedment to the perimeter walls of Oxgangs School.

5.5.2  The initial analysis by WRD suggested that up to 50% of the wall ties might not be sufficiently embedded. On receipt of this Report a decision was made by Council Officers to close Oxgangs School from the following day, Wednesday 16th March 2016. The following explanation of their approach to this decision was expressed in communications from the City of Edinburgh Council:

"Whilst the structural engineer has indicated that the building could continue to operate safely, a more precautionary approach has been taken to close the school to allow remedial work to be undertaken. The extent of the issue around the building renders the provision of an exclusion zone impractical"

5.5.3  Following the receipt of further structural reports containing indications of evidence of similarly inadequate embedment of wall ties to the external walls of all three of the remaining Phase 2 schools, it was decided at a meeting, held on 17th March, between Council elected members and senior Council officers that Braidburn School and St. Peter's Primary, two of the three remaining Phase 2 PPP1 schools, should also be closed with immediate effect from Friday 18th March 2016.

5.5.4  In so doing there was the expectation that the necessary remedial works to these schools would be completed in time to allow the schools to be safely re-opened on Monday 11th April, the day that pupils were due to return from their Easter break.

5.5.5  It was also decided that the fourth Phase 2 school, Firrhill High School, would close from the 18th March 2016 to allow the undertaking of detailed structural surveys but re-open again on 21st March 2016, which was what occurred.

5.5.6  The meeting also decided that, pending the results of the on-going surveys, the 13 Phase 1 projects should remain open until the commencement of the Easter school holidays on 24th March 2016.

5.5.7  The Inquiry was advised that this decision was based on a risk assessment using the information available to the City of Edinburgh Council at the time. Until information from the surveys would subsequently unfortunately indicate otherwise, the Council considered it to be a reasonable assumption that the defects relating to the wall-ties were confined to the four Phase 2 schools, all having been built at the same time in a separate phase by the one contractor, Miller Construction.

5.5.8  However, over the following days, the information from the on-going surveys of the Phase 1 schools indicated that similar problems of varying cavity width and lack of wall tie embedment had been identified across the PPP1 schools and it was recognised that the remedial programme would also have to be expanded to cover defective construction in these schools as well as in the four Phase 2 schools.

5.5.9  The following are examples of photographs taken from these survey reports showing the embedment of wall ties below the 50mm minimum requirement.

5.5.10  Following the novation of the appointment of WRD from the Council to ESP an in light of the emerging information on the extent of structural defects, the Council appointed a structural engineer to act solely on their behalf. A Director from the Glasgow office of Scott Bennett Associates, a structural engineering consultancy, was appointed to provide direct advice to the City of Edinburgh Council on how ESP and ESP's consultants and sub-contractors were addressing the on-going issues and to undertake a peer review of the nature and outcomes of the ongoing surveys and the emerging design proposals and methodologies for remediation of the schools.

5.5.11  Despite the contractual issues that the collapse of the Oxgangs School wall had given rise to between ESP and the City of Edinburgh Council, the Inquiry has been advised by those giving evidence to it that throughout this part of the process there appeared to be an open and transparent sharing of technical and survey information between ESP, WRD and the City of Edinburgh Council.