Asbestos drives up leisure centre costs…

Survey firm could face legal action after it missed asbestos.

Demolition of a leisure centre will cost an extra £1 million and has been delayed by 18 months after asbestos was found.

A survey of Abertillery Leisure Centre missed the brown asbestos. A report said cavity walls had been checked.

Blaenau Gwent council said it was considering legal action against MSS Consulting, the firm behind the survey.

A spokesman for the company said it had cooperated fully with the council to try and resolve the issue since it was first brought to its attention.

The matter is now in the hands of its insurers.

Blaenau Gwent council has suspended demolition work until a new firm has removed the asbestos, at a cost of £998,992.

Despite a specialist survey being carried out to check for asbestos, it was not mentioned in the report and was only discovered once demolition work had begun, the council said.

The council said MSS Consulting Ltd was hired to carry out a pre-demolition refurbishment (PDR) survey to identify the presence of asbestos.

A spokeswoman said “other sources of asbestos not identified within the PDR were discovered within building cavities and other areas”.

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