Council plans to remove asbestos from allotment site
Asbestos is set to be removed from a Stone allotment site after being there for several years – but the material present on the land has been deemed “very low risk”.
Stone Town Council, which owns the allotment site in Newcastle Road, is not required to remove the asbestos, councillors were told at a meeting on Tuesday.
But the council is planning to remove it – and has set aside a £2,000 budget towards the process. A policy will also discourage allotment holders from bringing more asbestos onto the site – and they will be responsible for paying for its removal if they do so.
The Environment Sub-Committee heard on Tuesday that asbestos had previously been used to prop up sides and beds on the allotments. The council needs to be aware of the asbestos and carry out annual inspections, but does not need to remove it urgently.
Sub-committee chairman Robert Townsend said: “Quite a bit of work has been going on in the past month. We have had a survey done on the asbestos sheeting that has been on the Newcastle Road allotments for many years.
“The survey has shown it’s very low risk asbestos and we are not under any obligation to remove it. It would be wise to remove it and it is something we want to do.
“It can be removed but it needs to be removed carefully. It can be removed by a contractor and it has to be disposed of in an authorised was – we will need a dedicated asbestos skip.
“Given we know that, we feel more comfortable we can make a start on the asbestos with the budget we have set aside, do as much as we can with the budget and come back to the council if more is needed to remove the remainder of it.”
