Edinburgh City Council has contracted a company involved in the EPPP schools crisis to inspect walls in the Scottish capital.
Amey will investigate retaining walls that support public roads and footways in Edinburgh as part of a city-wide survey after being given the £60,000 three-month contract by the council last month.
Read more: Exams postponed due to Edinburgh schools closure
Amey was a founding member of the Edinburgh Schools Partnership (ESP).
Seventeen PPP schools in Edinburgh were forced to close last week following safety concerns over the construction of their walls.
Read more: More disruption as faults found in all 17 schools in Edinburgh crisis
Councillor Gavin Corbett said he is 'astonished' at the council's decision to award the contract to Amey.
The Edinburgh Greens finance spokesman said: "I am staggered at the complacency of the finance committee in agreeing to give a contract to a private company which is part of the unfolding problem of school repairs in the capital.
"At the very least a pause in the decision would have been wise. Subsequent events, with 17 schools now closed, make the decision even more absurd."
The council’s decision to hand the lucrative inspection deal to Amey will cause fury among parents whose children are now having to travel up to 50 minutes in the morning to get to replacement schools.
Thousands of pupils affected by the schools closures returned to the classroom today.
Read more: pupils affected by Edinburgh schools crisis return to class
Alternative arrangements are now in place for all 7,600 pupils affected by last week’s closures of schools which were built under the controversial public private partnership (PPP).
Under the PPP scheme, public buildings are effectively rented to the public sector by private firms.
Children have been relocated to 61 different sites across the city, causing major disruption.
All 17 of the affected schools – which were closed due to faults with their walls – were built or refurbished following a £360 million public private partnership (PPP) agreement in 2001.
The deal created a PFI consortium called ESP, which included Amey, Miller Construction and the Bank of Scotland.
Amey said its ongoing facilities management contract at the schools did not include wall inspections, and it had now sold its shares in ESP.
It said 13 of the faulty schools were developed by an Amey-Miller Construction joint venture, while Amey had no involvement in the construction of the final four.
Gordon Allan, Amey’s business director for consulting in Scotland, said: “Under the contract we will be drawing on our consultancy expertise to catalogue the location and condition of retaining walls throughout Edinburgh so that the council’s maintenance team can develop a formal inspection and proactive maintenance schedule.”
Councillor Alasdair Rankin, leader of the city’s finance committee, said: “The decision to appoint the contract was taken following a competitive bidding process.”
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