More unease about asbestos problem

Published: 03 December, 2009

OBTAINING information from Highland Council about how it is dealing with the problem of asbestos in schools has proved to be difficult.

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But this week the Highland News appears to have uncovered why the local authority has been so reluctant to come clean on the issue.

An on-going investigation by the HN has now learned that a notice has been slapped on the council by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), ordering it to get its act together.

The HSE instruction giving the council a year to improve its record-keeping to reduce the risk from the potentially deadly material was actually served as far back as May - it appears after a major scare at Nairn Academy - and has been kept under wraps.

Several weeks ago, the HN learned that contract documents issued by the council revealed no surveys for asbestos had been carried out in 65 schools in the region and 58 had only had partial surveys.

When we asked for the names of the schools involved, we were suspicious about the delaying tactic employed when the council decided to treat our request under the time-consuming Freedom of Information Act.

The eventual response we received did not contain the list of schools asked for but announced that the latest information was that all the schools have now had some form of survey, a partial one in the case of 119. After a further request, the list of these schools was eventually provided.

No mention was made of the HSE notice.

Many will wonder exactly what the council is playing at when figures on which firms are being asked to tender change dramatically within a few weeks. That would appear to confirm the HSE's worries about record-keeping on a crucial health issue for staff and pupils.

But it also brings into question the manner in which this whole issue is being dealt with - a concern voiced by a senior Highland official of the leading teachers' union.

It is recognised that asbestos is a difficult and potentially extremely costly issue for the education service to deal with at a time of financial constraint - but it serves no purpose to attempt to hide the reality from the public.

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