Taxpayers’ face a bill of almost £1m for the removal of asbestos discovered in South Wales fire stations, Plaid Cymru AM Chris Franks has discovered.
And one station – Blaina – will have to be completely rebuilt at a cost of £500,000, according to details provided to the South Wales Central AM under the Freedom of Information Act.
Asbestos has been found in 43 stations with just five – Caerphilly, Duffryn in Newport, Maesteg, Roath and Ely in Cardiff – given a clean bill of health. The asbestos discovered has been mainly of the white variety although brown asbestos has been found to be present at a “significant minority of premises”.
In its response, the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it had spent £287,000 on the removal of asbestos, with the costs at each premises ranging from £1,000 to £35,000. Following asbestos removal, a total of £170,000 has had to be spent on reinstatement works. The service commissioned surveys of all its premises last year.
They said that asbestos had yet to be removed from the station at Blaina. “The cost will be in the region of £35,000. Because asbestos has been used in the main fabric of the building it is impractical to carry out reinstatement works. The decision has, therefore, has been taken to rebuild the station at a cost of £500,000. This is scheduled for February 2011.”
The brigade said that when the work was being carried out at Blaina temporary accommodation would have to be provided to house the appliance and crews.
The Plaid AM said: “These figures highlight the impact of asbestos removal on the fire service which is clearly significant.
“I have written to Ministers in an attempt to establish the extent of the cost of removing remaining asbestos from public buildings. Although it is absolutely essential this work is carried out, it could place significant burden on the public sector at a time of severe cuts.
“On a more general note I would urge businesses and individuals who find they have a potential problem with asbestos to ensure that proper assessments are carried out before authorising any work. I’m aware that scams do operate where people have been charged huge amounts for work which could be done more cheaply or may not even be needed.”
