Potentially lethal faults discovered at Scottish Parliament

POTENTIALLY lethal faults were discovered on the Scottish Parliament’s roof at a part of the £414 million building directly overlooking passers-by on the Royal Mile.

Holyrood officials admitted yesterday that there was a safety “issue with fixings” on one of the 150 anchor points – used by abseilers to attach roofers’ harnesses so they can carry out maintenance work.

The roof point was found to be badly corroded, with a loosened 100lb granite block on the side of the Holyrood building being held in place by makeshift wooden wedges just yards above the Royal Mile.

Scottish Parliament safety chiefs have now suspended the use of all roof access systems, which means that Trac International, the specialist firm which has a £6.9m contract to maintain the seven-year-old building, will not be able to have abseilers working from harnesses until at least the end of the month.

A parliament spokeswoman, when asked by The Scotsman, dismissed suggestions that there would be delays or an increased cost to the taxpayer as contractors will have to carry out work using cherry pickers, rather than the usual system of harnesses.

Senior Tory MSP Alex Johnstone warned that the safety threat would continue because of problems associated with the controversial design of the building. Previous problems have included the closure of the debating chamber for two months after a 12ft wooden roof beam swung loose during a debate and a granite block which came loose and was left hanging above the glass roof of the MSPs’ restaurant.

Mr Johnstone said: “This kind of problem is typical, where the design of the parliament building is so inappropriate.

“The parliament building will be dogged by these problems for ever. There will remain a problem with safety issues and it’s important that this latest issue is resolved as soon as possible.

“But whatever happens, the costs associated with the building will continue to rise.”

Scottish Parliament officials last night claimed there had been no threat to passers-by and said that the maintenance work would continue as normal.

A spokeswoman said: “There are no safety concerns regarding use of the Scottish Parliament building.

“There is no question of the parliament needing to close to the public or building users.

“We took the decision to suspend the use of all roof access systems. Our contractors, Trac, continue to work at Holyrood using alternative access methods.

“We have commissioned reports from our structural engineers and will consider options by the end of this month. While it is too early to speculate on the need for remedial work, any additional costs will be met within existing resources.”