Renfrewshire Council has 'owned' failings after school size blunder

Renfrewshire Council has “owned” the failing behind the Dargavel Primary School debacle and is determined not to repeat mistakes, an auditor has said.

The local authority found itself under the microscope again as a follow-up report on the saga – which saw the facility in Arrochar Drive, Bishopton, built too small – was discussed by the Accounts Commission on Thursday.

Botched roll calculations left behind a bill of £45 million for a second primary school for Dargavel Village, £15m towards an extension at Park Mains High School in Erskine and a trail of anger and frustration in affected communities.

But Gary Devlin, partner at Azets and external auditor appointed to the council, believes it is striving to make amends over the situation that has engulfed it for almost two years.

He told commission members: “I do observe a council that is trying to do all the right things, it’s recognised a serious failing and it’s owned that failing in a sense.

“There is a sense of shame about what’s gone wrong within the council and a determination for it not to happen again.

“You can see in the way the council is responding, the range of actions, the ownership of those actions, the discussions I have with the chief executive and the senior leadership team, does lead me to believe that this is a council committed to the change that’s needed and to learning the lessons.”

The latest paper, prepared by controller of audit Helena Gray, was considered after auditors were asked to look further into specific areas following the publication of an initial Section 102 report on the fiasco earlier this year.

It was broken into sections that provide an update on issues relating to community engagement, wider impacts on service provision, governance and scrutiny and finally performance and accountability.

The document said the council has demonstrated it is taking action to respond to issues highlighted in the Bowles report – the damning investigation by an expert who exposed “gross incompetence” behind the historic errors and made recommendations.

Ms Gray said at the meeting: “We talked about community trust at the beginning and, as I said, that is hard won and easily lost and takes time to build, so I think that rebuilding community trust is going to take time.

“The new primary school doesn’t have to be built until August 2027. There’s a lot that still needs to happen in that regard, not least around the design, procuring contractors and that will have implications, so there’s a lot still to play out there.

“We’ve seen ongoing commitments around new approaches to community engagement, the development of a toolkit, that all needs to take time to be developed and rolled out and implemented and then to see the impact of that.”

The commission is expected to publish its next steps on Tuesday, August 20.