A REPORT into a botched building project hit with £19 million of repair costs has condemned Scotland’s construction industry, suggesting it is plagued with “systemic problems”.
Citing the Edinburgh schools fiasco which saw 17 campuses close for repairs, expert Professor John Cole found the DG One leisure centre in Dumfries was so badly built that taxpayers are set to dish out more money repairing the building – which was originally billed as a flagship, high-quality project that would “grow old gracefully” – than it cost to build.
Mr Cole, who also spearheaded the probe into building failures at Edinburgh’s schools, said Kier Northern – now Kier Construction Scotland and North East – was “unquestionably” responsible for the shoddy work identified in DG One.
READ MORE: Construction defects found at schools, libraries and community centres across Edinburgh
He added: “In the opinion of the inquiry the extent and nature of the defects discovered are evidence of a lack of care, attention, basic construction skills or understanding of some of the fundamental principles of good construction on the part of those who built this building and those who supervised them.”
Mr Cole said the “widespread presence” of similar problems to those found in Edinburgh – such as over the structural integrity of external walls and adequate fire-stopping measures – suggests these failures “are indicative of systemic problems in the quality of work provided by the construction industry”.
DG One opened in May 2008 at a cost of £17 million, but was forced to close just six years later after a catalogue of construction defects were discovered. Since then, vast portions of the facility have had to be demolished and rebuilt.
Critics have now called for a criminal inquiry into its construction, with Dumfries and Galloway Council leader Elaine Murray confirming she will be referring the report to the police.
Mr Cole’s team found a “virtually unprecedented” number of faults permeating nearly all aspects of the building, from the underground drainage to the roof.
The fiasco sparked a long-running legal wrangle between the council and builders Kier Construction, before an out-of-court settlement saw the local authority handed £9.5 million in damages and legal costs.
READ MORE: Six schools and a nursery among buildings hit by construction defects in Edinburgh
Mr Cole said the leisure centre had taken an “excessive” ten years to be delivered, and condemned the council’s management, oversight and resourcing of the project.
He said there was a lack of “informed independent scrutiny”, while significant problems identified during construction were not addressed.
He also found the building was deemed to be completed “prematurely”, without proper inspections being carried out to “prevent the acceptance of the building in a state which potentially held risks for users of the building”.
Firefighters said they would have forced the facility to close in 2011 because it was so unsafe, had the council not promised to carry out emergency work.
The sheer scale of defects found in DG One has seen the cost of repairs almost double over the past two years – ballooning from £10 million in 2016 to an estimated £19.1 million.
Mr Cole’s independent report, which was commissioned by the council, found there were multiple failures on the part of the contractor to comply with the Building (Scotland) Act 2003.
Ms Murray said it gave a “damning verdict” over the quality of construction. She added: “Police Scotland have previously indicated that if criminal activity is evident in the report they would be willing to take it further. Based on this, I will now refer the inquiry report to Police Scotland.”
Scottish Labour MSP Colin Smyth called for a criminal probe, and insisted those responsible for building DG One were "worse than a shower of cowboys”.
He said: “They have shown utter disregard for even the most basic building standards and they cannot be allowed to get away with this.
“The fact Kier refused to take part in the inquiry was an utter disgrace and says a lot about how they are trying to duck responsibility.”
He added: “We have seen with the Edinburgh schools project that DG One is not an isolated incident. There are far too many flaws being identified across Scotland when it comes to private companies delivering public buildings that are just not fit for purpose."
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