‘Asbestos monster’ Council ‘on top’ of risk

HOUSING safety experts at Bristol City Council are “on top of the asbestos monster” lurking in many of its old properties.

It follows the launch of an action plan in September last year to tackle the problem and protect tenants’ health.

The plan was drawn up following a spike in accidental exposure to asbestos, with 17 incidents at council buildings in the city in 2018.

That was a sharp rise on the year before when there were only six cases. So far in 2019, there have been just two.

All but one of the 13 top-priority tasks relating to the highest risks to health that were identified in the plan have now been completed, councillors were told.

Officers say the work is ongoing and it is having the desired effect.

Audit committee chairman Cllr Mark Brain asked at a recent meeting: “So there is no great big asbestos threat out there that’s likely to turn around and bite us? “There is no asbestos monster?” Head of service for planned maintenance Gillian Durden replied: “The monster has been with us for a number of years and we have a way of managing the monster that’s in compliance with the control of asbestos regulations.

“We are on top of it. It has been around a long time.”

A report to the committee said: “Due to the age and complexity of the Bristol City Council assets, asbestos surveys are routinely carried out in all premises and there is an ongoing programme to keep registers up to date.

“Specifically for housing, the large housing stock is made up of many different designs having been constructed over the last century.

“Asbestos was a material commonly used to serve many different roles and because of this its presence is widespread throughout Bristol City Council housing stock.

“Asbestos should be less prevalent in housing stock constructed after the mid 1980s, thereafter being subject to banning, although it was not fully banned from use until 1999.”

The report said it was not possible to determine the location of every piece of the cancer-causing material.

But through the action plan, including increased training for hundreds of staff and contractors and weekly updates of a register listing where asbestos had been found, the risk of exposure was closely monitored and minimised.

Ms Durden told the meeting: “This risk had been escalated a year ago because of a number of incidents reported and an investigation has taken place into how asbestos is being managed across Bristol City Council.

“We have 28,000 homes that we manage across Bristol and many of them contain asbestos in various forms because of the nature of when and how they were built, so it’s an ongoing risk to manage.

“An action plan was agreed. It is being actively monitored.

“We are pretty much there with most of the actions. The ones that are not completed have other aspects in place to make sure we are actively mitigating that risk.

“The number of incidents over the last year has reduced quite significantly. There will be another review of the corporate risk in a follow up in early October.” Bristol City Council last year put in place an action plan following a spate of asbestosrelated incidents at councilowned buildings in 2018

She said officers were fully trained and contractors properly briefed and procedures were in place to test for asbestos before any building maintenance work began.

Ms Durden said the one “immediate action” of the 13 from last September’s action plan – “label identified asbestos to ensure third parties understand risk and improve reporting of damage” – was still under consideration.

She said: “We do label asbestos in areas with no public access.

“With asbestos within tenants’ homes, we advise tenants once we have done an asbestos survey where that asbestos is.

“What we are not doing is putting labels in tenants’ homes, on their ceiling or on their flooring or tiles, and we are reviewing whether we should do that.

“That’s something we need to do careful planning around.

“I have a new health and safety team and manager and that’s one of their pieces of work.”

❝

What we are not doing is putting labels in tenants’ homes, on their ceiling or on their flooring or tiles, and we are reviewing whether we should do that