It’s not often, if ever, I feel moved to start a column by praising the leader of the SNP, but as the anniversary of the tragic Baberton Mains gas explosion nears this weekend, I must give credit where it’s due.
There’s no room for party politics with a dreadful incident like this, in which an 84-year-old man died, one house was destroyed and several others were significantly damaged, but what matters is the survivors can get their lives back to some sort of normality as quickly as possible.
The blast anniversary is this Sunday, and it’s been clear for some time that since then virtually nothing has changed for those affected. Families are still living in temporary accommodation, the street is still devastated, the damaged houses are continuing to degrade, the other residents of Baberton Mains Avenue can’t receive large deliveries and there is no chance of anyone there being able to sell their homes. Lives are in limbo.
Edinburgh Council was pitifully slow to react, both at the time of the explosion and in the months that followed, but back in May when I asked John Swinney to meet the families, he didn’t hesitate to agree and kept his word.
Then two weeks ago I was thinking about this anniversary and what more could be done, I wrote to ask for him for a further meeting and since then we have worked together to accelerate the negotiations between insurance companies, loss adjusters and assessors and the council to bring this awful situation to a close.
Loss adjusters met residents on Tuesday and the demolition of the affected properties can start in February if demolition warrants can be obtained from the council. It’s a big if, because nothing is straightforward when dealing with the authority.
It’s been obvious from the outset that the council has been feeling its way, unclear how to handle the situation, which shows that institutional memories are short because it’s only five years since the Fountainbridge tenement explosion also left a man dead and several residents displaced, but with the added complication of the closure of shops below.
These kinds of incidents are thankfully rare in individual council areas, but across the country they do happen relatively frequently, so at the very least it should be possible for an organisation like Cosla, which represents all Scottish local authorities, to come up with a system which all councils can use in the event of similar tragedies.
Or perhaps there can be earlier intervention from the Scottish Government’s building standards officers, who in fairness have been doing what they can to keep up the pressure on their Edinburgh Council counterparts to get this resolved.
So too is there a role for the Association of British Insurers to find ways to avoid the unseemly haggling which goes on between their companies’ loss adjusters and householders’ loss assessors, which makes reaching agreement timeously so hideously complex.
I know that when people come to their MSP or MP they are at the end of their tether and so often the problem is bureaucratic procedures and back covering from those who are supposed to help.
There must be a better way to deal with tragedies than sticking stubbornly to the rule book when people have had their lives wrecked in an instant.
