Renfrewshire Council’s handling of the capacity saga surrounding Dargavel Primary School will go under the microscope for a second time this week.
A follow-up report on the fiasco – which saw the facility in Arrochar Drive, Bishopton, built too small – has been prepared by the controller of audit and will be discussed by the Accounts Commission on Thursday.
The latest paper has been made public after auditors were asked to look further into specific areas following the publication of an initial Section 102 report on the debacle earlier this year.
It is 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 local authority has demonstrated it is taking action to respond to issues previously highlighted in the Bowles report – the damning investigation by an expert who exposed “gross incompetence” behind the historic errors and made recommendations.
It concluded: “The auditor has carried out further work to look at council actions and progress in the five particular areas of concern identified by the commission and I am satisfied that the actions being taken by the council are timely and appropriate.
“The council carried out its consultation on the proposed new primary school in line with statutory requirements and the independent consultant found that the process was robust.
“The consultation found significant support for a new school, however, there is no clear consensus on the proposed site and some respondents continued to highlight high school provision as a pressing issue although that was outwith the consultation scope.
“The council has recognised that there is still work to do and reports it has developed plans for ongoing community engagement on the design and planning of the new school.”
The report continued: “The council has now concluded its review of risk management and has largely completed the actions arising from its review of governance arrangements.
“It has also completed its review of its Dargavel consultation and community engagement activity.
“The council has made progress in its response to the issues raised in the Bowles report, but it is too early to conclude on the impact and effectiveness of some of the actions taken by the council … It is critical that the council is as transparent as possible about how it reaches key decisions and that appropriate records are kept.”
The commission will be invited to consider the update, approve formal publication arrangements and decide in private how it wishes to proceed.
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