John Logie Baird Primary RAAC roof will cost £3m to replace

And work to install a new roof at John Logie Baird Primary School (JLB) will cost council tax payers £3 million, it's been revealed.

Argyll and Bute Council confirmed in September that the roof at the Winston Road building contained crumbling concrete known as RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete).

A whistleblower later told the Advertiser that the dangerous material had been discovered in 2017 - six years before the national scandal over the widespread use of RAAC in schools and other public buildings around the UK erupted.

JLB is the only building in Argyll and Bute Council's learning estate to have the faulty concrete.

A new report reveals that council officials are expecting a gap of £4.5m in the authority's budget for the 2024-25 financial year - not including the cost of replacing the roof at JLB.

The roof over the girls' toilet at John Logie Baird Primary School, seen in 2018 (Image: ATK Partnership)

The cost of building a new school campus on Mull - which needs another £11m in addition to funds already set aside - is also not included in the council's financial calculations for the next financial year.

The report will go before the authority’s policy and resources committee at its meeting on Thursday, December 7.

Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said: “Surveys have been completed in the council’s learning estates in relation to RAAC, with only one building confirmed as having it present, with steps underway for its removal.

“This will include a decant of the students for approximately nine months plus total removal and replacement of the roof during 2024.

"The estimated costs associated with this are £3m which will require additional funding.”

The Advertiser revealed in September that warnings over the state of the roof at JLB dated back to August 2017 - and had been followed by a detailed inspection in April of the following year.

A roof beam exposed by crumbling RAAC at John Logie Baird Primary (Image: ATK Partnership)

Detailed inspection reports from John Logie Baird Primary discovered a 45-centimetre section of concrete completely gone above the girls' toilets.

Structural engineers saw a slab had dropped by 10cm, and told council bosses that a repair was not even suitable.

They said in an email they were "somewhat shocked" by the state of roof slabs formed out of Siporex, a brand name for a type of RAAC.

Temporary repairs were carried out, though the affected areas weren't closed off to pupils.

In September, when the national scandal over the widespread use of RAAC came to light, the council said it planned to carry out work at JLB within the next 12 months.

The latest report says JLB's pupils and staff will be decanted some time during 2024, though no exact date is provided - and there is also no information on where they might go while the work is carried out.

According to the latest school roll data for Helensburgh and Lomond, published in June of this year, JLB had 103 pupils at the start of the 2022-23 academic year - down 30 per cent on the figure five years earlier, the steepest fall of any primary school in the area.

Crumbling RAAC in the roof above a staff toilet at John Logie Baird Primary, seen in 2018 (Image: ATK Partnership)

Funding for a new school campus on Mull is also set to cause problems for the council, with £11m still required to go alongside existing funds and Scottish Government funding, according to Ms Flanagan's report.

Ms Flanagan also says the budget gap estimated for the council from 2024/25 to 2028/29 is £23.1m, with a gap of £4.5m in the coming financial year.

She said: “This is a very challenging budget outlook position and the level of Scottish Government grant, the pay award, the council tax freeze and the further potential cost and demand pressures outlined within the report could alter the figures significantly.

“These will be kept under close review and the budget outlook updated as and when further information becomes available.”

The council is due to set its budget in February.