Council Reassures Parents Following Fire Tragedy
Inverclyde Council has written to parents and carers to reassure them following the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in London last month.
It follows press reports that three Inverclyde schools have a proportion of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding in their construction.
The letter – to parents and carers of children attending Lomond View Academy, Kilmacolm Primary and St Columba’s High School – says the cladding meets Scottish Buildings Standards and Regulations and they can be reassured about the safety of their children.
It goes on: “ACM panels are most commonly used as a form of rainscreen and typically form a second layer to prevent water penetrating into the wall construction beneath.
“ACM is a description of a category of product. The implementation of the Scottish Building Standards and Regulations means that the specific type of cladding used in Grenfell Tower should not be used in any high rise domestic buildings.
‘The Standards do permit some types of ACM cladding to be used in other buildings provided it is correctly installed and meets Scottish Building Regulations.
‘The ACM cladding used on a portion of the three schools in Inverclyde is not the same product as that used in Grenfell Tower and it has been installed in line with Scottish Building Regulations.
‘The school buildings involved are low rise, they have robust fire risk assessments, automatic fire detection and alarm systems, automatic fire suppression systems (sprinklers) and all schools take pupil safety extremely seriously and regularly carry out fire evacuation procedures.
‘Inverclyde Council continues to make pupil safety a top priority and has taken forward all necessary precautionary measures to identify any areas of cladding, to identify the type of material used, to ensure the cladding has been fitted correctly and all risk measures are in place.’