RAAC fund must start with West Lothian schools

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today called on the Scottish Government to establish a fund that local and public authorities can tap into to fund the removal of dangerous concrete.

His call comes as West Lothian Council says it cannot afford the £35m cost of rebuilding its largest secondary school following the discovery of crumbling concrete there. The local authority wants the Scottish Government to meet a £15m shortfall on the work at St Kentigern's Academy in Blackburn.

West Lothian Liberal Democrat councillor Sally Pattle was the first to call for a national fund in June.

Andrew Maguire, the executive councillor for education, told the BBC:

"The council can't afford it. If the Scottish government doesn't step in and offer us additional financial resource then the reality is that we'll need to make cuts to other services to be able to afford to do it.

"The situation at St Kent's cannot be left unresolved, so depressingly we'll be looking at yet further cuts to council services.

"Nothing will be off the table given the extreme financial pressures the council is under."

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“It’s almost two and a half years since West Lothian first raised the alarm about RAAC in schools.

“Since then the Scottish Government don’t appear to have provided a penny of dedicated support.

“Across Scotland, the bill for making these buildings safe and in some cases replacing them altogether is going to run into the hundreds of millions of pounds. It’s simply not sustainable or believable to think that cash-strapped councils will be able to fix this on their own. It’s a recipe for the most brutal possible cuts to council services.

“Ministers need to get their heads out the clouds and finally establish a fund that authorities can tap into to fund the removal of this dangerous concrete.”