£1.9m probe launched into asbestos in city buildings

Published on Saturday 16 February 2008 10:15

A MAJOR £1.9 million investigation into every council-owned property in Edinburgh is set to be launched in a bid to identify asbestos levels.

The council today admitted its current records are "inadequate", and do not meet health and safety regulations.

The project is designed to ensure materials that contain asbestos are kept in a safe condition if they pose a minimum risk, or removed if there is an "unacceptable risk" to human health.

The Health and Safety Executive recently served the council with an improvement notice after identifying problems with the local authority's processes for dealing with asbestos.

A central database will be set up to record all information relating to asbestos at the 1090 council-owned premises, such as schools, community centres, care homes, offices and "investment properties" which are leased out.

At the same time, surveys will be done to assess the energy performance of buildings, as well as compliance with disability discrimination laws.

The money is set to be included in the council budget for 2008/09, due to be adopted on Thursday.

City finance leader Gordon MacKenzie said today: "This is a very serious issue, and it's vitally important that we carry out this survey work.

"Sadly, this has been starved of resources up to now, but this is our first budget and we intend to make provision."

To meet its obligations, the council requires accurate electronic floor plans showing a record of the location and condition of asbestos-containing materials.

The 1.9m will be spent on the project between 2008 and 2010, with annual maintenance costs of around 150,000 per year thereafter.

Council officials have warned that failure to carry out the work will be a breach of legal requirements and could result in action being taken against the local authority.

Basic information is currently available for only around 50 per cent of council properties, which will need to be updated, while the remainder of the buildings will require a full survey. The scheme does not cover the council's housing stock.

City development director Andrew Holmes said: "Given the requirements, there is an urgent need for a major one-off survey of operational property to obtain current electronic plans and survey information.

"It is proposed that initial survey work commence during 2008/09 with completion in 2009/10. Given the size and value of the exercise, earlier completion is impractical.

"On completion of this work, all plans held on the database would be checked and updated, following alteration, on an annual basis."

Labour group leader Ewan Aitken – who was council leader until last year's election – said it was "simply not true" that resources for this area had been "starved".

He said the money would have been provided if council officials had raised concerns.