Jarvis under investigation for fatal British rail crash

Dan Buckley finds the project contractor for the School of Music has been dogged by controversy.

THE company employed to develop and manage the Cork School of Music is under investigation in Britain in connection with a rail crash in which seven people died and more than 70 were injured.

The project contractor is also being investigated for its involvement in other rail accidents in Britain. It has withdrawn from maintenance contracts with Britain’s Network Rail, the quasi-state body responsible for rail infrastructure.

However, its work in Ireland so far has drawn nothing but praise.

Jarvis has been further criticised for its handling of a scheme to build and maintain nine schools in northern Britain.

The fatal rail crash occurred at Potters Bar, north of London, in May 2002. It claimed seven lives, including an 80-year-old Irish woman. The company was responsible for maintaining the section of track south of Potter’s Bar station, where the train derailed on a set of points. At the time, Jarvis claimed the points in question had passed safety inspections the day before the crash. However, an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) concluded the points were in bad condition and poorly maintained.

Last September, the firm admitted it could have been to blame for a derailment of an express train outside London’s King’s Cross after its contractors removed a section of rail for repairs overnight, but then failed to replace it. The derailment did not cause injury but led to weeks of disruption.

That same month the company were in court on a charge of breaching health and safety regulations relating to a freight train derailment near Rotherham in November 2002.

Shortly after the King’s Cross derailment, Jarvis announced it was pulling out of rail maintenance, citing “reputational problems” and lower than expected profits.

At the time then Jarvis Chairman Paris Moayedi said: “The board of Jarvis has decided to focus the business on delivering its core services to even higher standards of excellence.”

The company will continue its involvement in railway construction.

All of the rail incidents are being investigated by Britain’s HSE.

The criticism of Jarvis’ handling of school building projects in Britain has been prompted by delays in opening nine schools near Liverpool. The Merseyside project was delayed because subcontractors claimed they had not been paid, and one firm quit over unpaid bills of stg£60,000, a BBC investigation found. Some schools were unable to open on time, prompting anger from parents, said local MP Frank Field.

Jarvis admitted the firm did have problems with subcontractors, but said these were “not a cause of delay”.

The spokesman added: “If you were to look at projects all around the country, you would find a lot of highly delighted head teachers, parents, pupils and local authorities.”

The BBC’s File on 4 programme found that bricklayers had walked off one site because a stg£60,000 bill had not been settled.

Jarvis also said a large part of the delay was down to asbestos found in the schools. However, the council in which all schools are sited says this was only the case in one school, adding Jarvis knew the substance was at other sites and was given extra time to deal with it.

Instead the council has blamed a number of factors, including the firm’s problems in recruiting labour, as well as the difficulties with sub-contractors.

However, despite Jarvis’ increasingly controversial status in Britain, its Irish operations have run smoothly. It has already constructed five schools under the Government’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme and each is considered a model of development.

“We have had no problems whatsoever with Jarvis,” a spokesman for the Department of Education said. “All the work they have done to date has been up to scratch.”

School of Music campaigners agree with that assessment. Representatives from Cork Institute of Technology, of which Cork School of Music is a constituent college, travelled to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, being run by Jarvis, and were impressed by what they saw. “It was a big project,” said one of the delegates. “We were very pleased with what we encountered.”

The company’s division, Jarvis Projects, will carry out the School of Music development under the Government’s PPP programme.

The group has already built five schools, involving a development cost of over IR£63 million (€80m). The five second-level schools are located in Ballincollig, Co Cork (1,000 pupils); Dunmanway, Co Cork (700); Clones, Co Monaghan (500); Shannon, Co Clare (600); and Tubbercurry, Co Sligo (675).

The schools occupy approximately 35,000sqm and include highly advanced IT and communications systems as well as extensive sports and leisure facilities. Jarvis will provide a range of management services including building maintenance, cleaning, security, ground maintenance and IT and communications support.

The project was the first educational PPP undertaken by the Government and the first overseas schools project by Jarvis.

Jarvis is already working on a stg£30 million (€44.5m) development of 16 new courts for the Northern Ireland Courts Service and is preferred bidder for the provision of a 430 bed student accommodation facility for the New Ulster University.

Jarvis is seeking to reduce debts and earlier this month said it was considering selling half of its stake in one of the consortiums involved in London’s Tube system.

Its explanation was that it was part of a “prudent business strategy of limiting its capital investment in any single project”. A spokesman confirmed, however, that the firm is seeking to reduce debt.

Despite being dogged by controversy, Jarvis continues to thrive. In 2002, the firm saw a 26% increase in turnover to stg£534.4m. (€794.3m), with operating profits rising by 20% to stg£29.1m. (€44m).