Firms running after-school sports, swimming and dance clubs are among hundreds of businesses to have been hit in the wake of the Edinburgh schools fiasco.
Business leaders are calling on a share of a compensation pot currently being considered to include firms, many small and locally-owned, who have lost out by the closure of 17 schools for over a week amid safety fears in the Scottish capital.
Some after-school clubs have lost three-quarters of their patrons and overall compensation could run well beyond earlier estimates of more than £1 million for loss of earnings and childcare costs.
Read more: Edinburgh school crisis company wins £60,000 contract 'to inspect city walls'
The Federation of Small Businesses Scotland said the schools crisis is like the "new Forth Road Bridge", which was closed suddenly last year when a crack appeared, creating weeks of disruption in and around Edinburgh.
The FSB said many groups and businesses that operate on low budgets and are housed in or around schools act as the backbone to local communities but as Edinburgh City Council has moved to find places for 7,600 ahead of exam time their livelihoods are being affected.
Some running sport and swimming classes reported as much as a 75per cent drop in business, it is claimed, as FSB warned the open-ended Edinburgh schools fiasco could be a financial pressures for firms.
Stuart Mackinnon, spokesman for FSB Scotland, said: “We are hearing from lots of businesses how have been impacted, from the most obvious ones like people who are running the swimming clubs, some of whom are down 75 per cent, right through to the people who are simply parents who are running a business and also finding it very difficult."
He added: "If one school is closed then it affects a number of allied businesses right to the small shops near the school where parents shop.
Read more: More disruption as faults found in all 17 schools in Edinburgh crisis
"What would also be very helpful for businesses would be a timetable regarding returning to normal.
"There are parallels to the Forth Road Bridge when there was no end in sight.”
Compensation specialists Thompsons Solicitors said a firm who can show they have lost out because of the school closures could potentially make a claim for a share in an overall compensation pot.
One senior legal source also said claims could include "a third party contractor losing money because your people can't get in their and do the work".
Practical exams have been postponed and concerns raised over the effect the upheaval will have on senior pupils facing key exams as the last pupils return this week.
Edinburgh City Council is continuing dialogue with the Edinburgh Schools Partnership consortium, which runs the schools and has said it will take financial responsibility.
Read more: Pupils affected by Edinburgh schools crisis return to class
A council spokesman said: "Discussions are ongoing with ESP over compensation."
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