EAST Lothian Council has launched an investigation into the safety of its secondary schools and two centres which are all maintained under private finance agreements, following the closure of numerous schools in Edinburgh.

The local authority said all six secondary schools in the county, the Mercat Gait Centre in Prestonpans and Musselburgh Community Learning Centre were all being checked, after they were all refurbished through a public private partnership (PPP) agreement more than 10 years ago.

City of Edinburgh Council closed 17 schools this week amid safety concerns which were sparked by the collapse of a wall at one of their primary schools in January during high winds.

The incident led to structural reviews of schools built under the same PPP agreement and saw 10 primaries, five secondaries and two additional support schools shut.

The Scottish Government met over the weekend and called on all local authorities to carry out emergency checks on their own school buildings following the problems in Edinburgh.

And Councillor Stuart Currie, council SNP opposition party leader, has written to Alex McCrorie, the council’s director of education, seeking reassurances everything is being done to check East Lothian’s PPP buildings are safe.

Mr Currie said: “My view is that teams must be in all the PPP schools to visually inspect the buildings to ensure there are no defects.

“I think anything less would be unacceptable. My letter to the director of education [Alex McCrorie] asks for the buildings to be physically inspected.”

East Lothian Council said the work carried out on its secondary schools and additional public buildings was not through the same construction company as that used by City of Edinburgh Council.

But it said it was still carrying out full checks on the buildings and their ongoing maintenance.

A spokesperson said: “Our six secondary schools, the Mercat Gait Centre and the Musselburgh Community Learning Centre have been refurbished under a PPP arrangement but this was not with the same construction company related to the affected City of Edinburgh Council schools.

"However, we are taking this issue extremely seriously and are in the process of seeking assurances from Infrastructure Managers Ltd, who are responsible for ensuring our secondary schools and two community facilities are managed and maintained to a very safe standard.

“There are many condition surveys and works carried out in support of the properties being managed and maintained to a high standard by ourselves and Infrastructure Managers Ltd. We are liaising closely with City of Edinburgh Council to determine the exact nature of the issues affecting their school closures.”

The council said none of its primary schools had been part of any PPP arrangement but it continued to carry out safety checks and condition surveys at all its school buildings.