By Chris Williams-
A Scottish Council has lost a £12m claim it put into an appeal court seeking damages following the detection of Carbon Dioxide from a disused mine
Midlothian Council was forced to abandon the 64- home site which was built in 2009 abandon a 64-home site built in 2009 after carbon dioxide was detected from a disused mine. In 2014, NHS Lothian set up an incident management team to investigate reported cases of ill health affecting a number of residents of a recently built housing estate in the previous mining area of Gorebridge, Midlothia. Over 22 residents suffered dry coughs and migrains due to the migration of Carbon monoxide
A commercial judge ruled against the council in the original hearing, leaving Midlothian Council embarrassed. At the Scottish Appeal Court, the Inner House of the Court of Session ruled that the development’s lead consultant, Bracewell Stirling Architects, was not liable to pay the £12m in damages the council was seeking. The council complained that investigations carried out by Raeburn Drilling and geotechnical in 2005 should have uncovered concentrations of the gas which ought to have led to recommendations to install a defence gas system
A report from NHS Lothian, published at the end of last year, found the seepage of carbon dioxide into the houses was a “rare, complex and costly incident” and is “probably the most serious CO2-related incident in Scotland”. The report said 22 residents out of 165 had made contact with local health services with complaints of headaches, dizziness, dry coughs and anxiety.
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The task before the court was to establish whether Bracewell Stirling Architects could be held responsible for the work carried out by subcontractors.
The court established that although under the contract between Bracewell Stirling Architects and Midlothian Council, the architect firm had “full responsibility” for the design of the development. this only stretches to the architect’s responsibilities for “overall co-ordination of the design works” and should not be seen as “an acceptance of liability for anything that might ultimately go wrong with the design, no matter what its cause”.
A Midlothian Council spokesperson said: “The judgement of the Inner House of the Court of Session related to a preliminary legal point. The council will consider the judgement in consultation with its legal advisers before coming to a view on the future management of the case.”
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