Nine of the 17 Edinburgh schools closed last month due to safety reasons will remain closed for nearly four more months Edinburgh City Council has confirmed.
The city council said that nine of the 17 schools shut will reopen after the summer holidays on 17 August while remedial work is carried out – later than council leaders and parents had hoped.
Last month the 17 schools, including five secondaries, 10 primaries and two support schools were shut due to concerns over structural issues and building defects were found.
Three schools will reopen next month with remediation work on another five due to be completed in June.
Andrew Burns, the council leader, said in a statement on Friday: “The safety of our children is our number one priority and we all want our schools to reopen safely, as soon as possible.
“We will continue to work with [the consortium] Edinburgh Schools Partnership and their partners to ensure all work and quality checks are completed, so we can update parents as quickly as possible with information about their schools. If we are able to bring forward reopening dates then we will do so.”
All of the schools, which are about 10 years old, were built by Miller Construction under the same £360m PPP contract.
Miller Construction, together with Amey, was part of the ESP consortium contract. In 2001 ESP won the £360m deal to design, build and maintain the 17 schools for 30 years. Miller Construction was acquired by Galliford Try in 2014.
