Closure of schools due to burst pipes

IN THESE days of increased awareness of energy conservation, it would be fair to assume that pipes in public buildings would have a decent layer of insulation. Not so in the Highlands and Moray, where a number of schools were closed yesterday because of burst pipes.

Flooding affected secondaries and primaries and disrupted the return to school after the holiday.

The prolonged cold snap and the fact that schools are normally kept on a care and maintenance basis during the break between terms created the perfect conditions for pipes to freeze then thaw and crack.

Why, then, were precautions not in place to prevent the obvious from happening?

The willingness of local authorities to agree to school closures in adverse weather is already an irritation for parents. To exacerbate the situation by not preparing for a problem that is easily preventable shows little care for the disruption school closures can cause.

Budgetary constraints may have added to the problem, but there were plenty of schools and local authorities across a very cold Scotland where prevention was clearly deemed the fairest and, in the end, most economical path to follow.