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An action plan to keep the deadly legionella bacteria out of public water in Falkirk Council buildings is now underway, following an audit that described procedures as “unacceptable”.

The council’s audit committee heard yesterday (Monday) that a dedicated legionella officer has now been appointed who will be part of a team to oversee property management that is now being recruited.

A working group has been overseeing the action plan which includes making all council premises managers more aware of their responsibilities.

A training programme will be delivered to staff and then kept up-to-date by the legionella officer.

Falkirk Council's procedures for testing for legionella were previously deemed "unacceptable". Pic: Adobe stock

The council had previously experienced major problems reopening schools and nurseries after legionella – which can lead to Legionnaire’s disease – was found in them after lockdown closures.

Last year, an internal audit found serious shortcomings in procedures for a sample of five properties in Falkirk, leaving the service with a “no assurance” rating.

It flagged:

inconsistent checking and reporting regimes;
a lack of training of premises staff;
poor escalation of reporting where temperature checks highlighted results outwith expected parameters;
inconsistency of checking pre-planned maintenance tasks carried out by contractors.

The leader of the council, Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, said she was keen to make sure there would be “lessons learned” from the situation to make sure that there was a more robust approach in future.

The latest report to councillors said that one of the problems was “limited buy-in” from premises staff and Councillor Anne Hannah asked how that was being addressed.

“Like Councillor Meiklejohn, I am concerned about the future,” she said.

Head of Invest Falkirk, Paul Kettrick, said that training is being rolled out from April and an updated handbook has already been issued to all premises managers to make them aware of their responsibilities.

He added: “Whilst there has been in the past pockets of general lack of understanding or perhaps an apathy in relation to the management of property compliance, those are increasingly few and far between.

“I’m certainly not seeing any intentional resistance, I think it’s more about awareness raising and training that’s the issue at the moment.”

There will be a final review of the action plan in September and the committee asked for a final report to make sure all of the issues raised in the internal audit report had been resolved.

Falkirk Council: Legionella testing to be improved after serious flaws found in system