NOT JUST ANOTHER BROKEN BRICK IN THE WALL

By Mark Cooney

DESPITE Edinburgh Council’s protestations, the collapse of a school wall that killed 12-year-old Keane Wallis-Bennett could and should have been avoided.

The dangerous state of the girls’ changing rooms at Liberton High School had been reported by pupils, but nothing was done to repair it.

It is a tragedy that leaves a loving family in despair, but one that is sadly indicative of the consequences of wasteful and even immoral spending by our councils. 

They have spent many millions, and sometimes billions, on needless vanity projects, while our towns continue to fall into disrepair at an alarming rate. Walk around the less salubrious areas of our communities and you are compelled to ask yourself; “where’s the money going?”

Keane’s school needed £1million of repairs but council budget pressures meant it was not deemed a priority.

One Liberton pupil claimed she had warned a teacher some months ago that there was an unstable wall in the girls' changing room. She said: “I told staff that the wall had moved when I leaned on it, but nothing was done. I think they should have done something.”

And, in February, the Council was fined £8,000 after a pupil received serious injuries when she fell down a lift shaft at the same school.

When it comes to dilapidated facilities, Liberton High School is not alone. This week, schools in Perthshire were also in the headlines because of council neglect.

On an island of health and safety fanaticism, surely every council has a legal and moral obligation to ensure school structures are at the very least safe, if not modern and child friendly. Risking children’s safety is never an option and the wall should have been repaired immediately as a matter of course after being reported.

Why it wasn’t we don’t yet know, but it may have been attended to had Edinburgh’s Council not burned a billion notes on a tram system that the majority of the city’s residents neither believed was needed, nor wanted.

The project was originally costed in 2003 at £375 million.

Most would agree that Edinburgh has an excellent bus service that did not require an additional tram network, but the then Liberal Democrat-led council ploughed ahead, regardless of the feelings of local taxpayers.

I suspect that improvements to crater-laden roads, litter collection, public health and school safety were higher on the public’s agenda.

Keane’s grandmother this week revealed similar feelings when she told a Scottish newspaper that the trams budget had come at the sacrifice of school kids’ safety.

My contacts, some of whom were in senior positions on the Edinburgh tram committee before they departed with generous payoffs, speak of a bemused and rudderless group of social workers ‘working’ on a complex subterranean engineering project of which they had zero experience.

One would think it would have been better to hire more engineers, or maybe even experienced professionals who understood building contracts. But I understand the council panjandrums were instead enjoying their junkets, visiting the world’s great cities and their tram networks at public expense.

This is not a demonisation of trams, which can offer frequent, efficient and cheap public transport, but more the monstrous mismanagement of contracts and a spectacular failure of supervisory diligence. And the utter disregard for the public purse.

Since coming to power in Scotland in 2007 the SNP has repeatedly berated the plan to spend a billion pounds on the trams. The kerfuffle finally took its toll on the Liberal Democrats when the party was all but wiped out at the 2012 city council elections.

Edinburgh Council is now led by an SNP/Labour coalition, but the trams project goes ahead as planned.

Well, not really as planned. More than two years late, significantly truncated from the original routes - because they had run out of money - and still several hundred million pounds over budget. 

Serious money, indeed - money that should have been spent on public buildings, housing, schools, pavements and streets. Surely there is a strong case to be made that council neglect and budgetary incompetence attributed, at least in part, to a child’s death.

This week it was revealed that expenditure on footpath maintenance in Scotland is down 20% since 2009. This offers more clear evidence that money, our money, is being spent elsewhere.

And here’s another fiscal factor. How much compensation is Edinburgh Council paying out each year to victims of accidents caused by poorly maintained pavements, roads, walls and buildings? And will the accident payouts increase as trams and cyclists vie with each other for space on the road?

Are they really managing and spending our money how we want them to?

Just where is these councillors’ moral compass?

One would presume the council is applying some serious time and thought on how to recoup that billion pounds. Or will the city’s public servants continue to ignore taxpayers’ opinions while letting those accountable for the tram sham depart with golden goodbyes without as much as an apology?

It’s all so sadly predictable. And so are the consequences.

* At the time of publication, no one from Edinburgh City Council was available to comment, but we will publish any replies when we receive them.

TO TRAIN OR NOT TO TRAIN, THAT IS THE VEXING QUESTION! - By Jim Black

LET the train take the strain...wasn’t that what those charged with extolling the benefits of rail travel told us?
Pity no one told ScotRail.
Take the strain? More like make the strain!
Those of you have had the misfortune to experience the ScotRail experience as it were of late will appreciate where I am coming from.
Being of a certain vintage I qualify for the excellent Club 55 deal – anywhere in Scotland return for £19 second class and £35 first.
Considering what a tank of diesel costs to take you from Inverness to Edinburgh, return, it was a no brainer when the Scottish Mail on Sunday newspaper asked me to report on the recent Aberdeen versus St Johnstone League Cup semi-final at Tynecastle Park.
The almost luxury of a first class compartment, free tea and coffee, biscuits and a power point that worked (for once) even if the wifi is invariably crap! What more can you ask for?
All was well on the journey south and several cups of coffee later I alighted at Haymarket in a reasonably cheery mood (well, by my standards I was almost cheery!).
Perhaps had I know what awaited me several hours later on my return I might not have been quite so chipper.
Fast forward to 6.50pm and I could sense troubles ahead.
The platform at Haymarket was awash with red and white – and dozens of drunken Dons fans celebrating their team’s overwhelming victory and a cup final place for only the second time in the new millennium. Fair enough, as a Dundee fan largely deprived of such experiences I could understand their need to push the boat out.
Not even the presence of several officers of law and order could deter the assembled masses from giving vent to their emotions – in song, foul language and yobbish behaviour at the expense of the wellbeing of women, children and puppy dogs!
Almost predictably the travel board was lit up announcing that the Aberdeen train preceding the Inverness express was running several minutes late due its delayed departure from Waverly and this was having a knock on effect to subsequent services.
But, so what, I asked myself? What are a few minutes between friends?
Trouble was when the Aberdeen train eventually drew into the platform it was wall-to-wall, standing room only.
This was not altogether surprising, given that an estimated 12,000 Dons fans had made their way to the capital. But, clearly, no one had told ScotRail!
Perhaps if they had known, the fat cats who are responsible for the smooth running of the country’s rail network might have given due consideration to proving extra services to cope with the demand. Then again, maybe not!
But, I digress. On they poured until even the officers of law and order felt a need to intervene, in a half-hearted attempt to restore a semblance of sanity, with the result that several dozen would-be travellers were advised to “come on, get aff!”
The unfortunate (?) would-be travellers were, however, assured that if they caught the Inverness-bound express due to arrive shortly – and late – they would have the option of changing at Perth and catching the Glasgow-Aberdeen service.

By now several members of the “brain dead society”, who had decided to stay onboard and take taxis from Inverness ...(and further on).

Partial sanity was restored a few miles north of Perth

But even the best laid schemes of mice and men – and ScotRail – gang aft agley.
To cut a long and potentially boring story short rather than put the reader’s health at risk, less than an hour later we were “beached” somewhere in darkest Fife to facilitate a brawl on the preceding Aberdeen train, the upshot being that we eventually arrived in Perth way behind schedule and late enough to ensure that the Glasgow-Aberdeen service had long since departed.
By now several member of the “brain dead society”, who had decided to stay onboard and take taxis from inverness to various points along the Moray coast, had availed themselves of the first class facilities, treating those of us who had paid for the privilege to a mix of foul language, drunk and disorderly behaviour while also demonstrating their dexterity in the art of ridding themselves of excess flatulence!
And, surprise, surprise, there wasn’t a ticket inspector to be seen anywhere! Had there been, he or she might actually have evoked the ruling banning the consumption of alcohol after a certain hour on a Saturday evening. Neither was there any sign of a buffet service.
Perish the thought, but was this yet another example of ScotRail employees failing to carry out their duties?
Partial sanity was restored a few north of Perth when a ticket inspector at last showed face and ejected the members of the “brain dead society” and a buffet car attendant at last materialised.
But the story doesn’t end there. Now, hopelessly behind schedule and without toilet facilities from 11 o’clock due to their disgusting state, we travelled on through the night to be told at Newtonmore, Kingussie and Carbridge, in turn, that as there were no station lights at these far flung Highland outposts would passengers alighting please ensure extra care?
Perish the thought again, did ScotRail have a contingency plan to deal with a medical emergency in the event of an aged and infirm traveller slipping on an icy surface and wedging themselves between train and platform? No, probably not.
Eventually, a few minutes short of midnight, we reached journey’s end – five unpleasant hours after setting out on a journey that is scheduled to take less than four to complete the distance from Scotland’s capital to the capital of the Highlands.
There were no apologies from ScotRail. But, why would there be? This is Alex Salmond’s brave new land, after all, and none are necessary apparently.
But, next time someone suggests I let the train take the strain, I’ll take my car instead.