Pavilion asbestos scandal

Indymedia.co.uk, 14th April 2008 accused Pavilion Housing Association of behaving like a new slum landlord. I said that the description could equally apply to many other housing associations, who are more concerned with empire building and making money for themselves and inflating their fat act salaries than looking after their tenants.

Pavion failed to take proper precautions when removing hazardous asbestos. In April, garages at the entrance to Firgrove Court were in the process of being demolished. Firgrove Court, a small estate of social housing, is earmarked for demolition, the tenants to be kicked out of their homes, the site then redeveloped as a car park for a superstore, part of the unwanted town centre redevelopment in Farnborough.

Many of the maisonettes have sat empty for years, kitchens and bathrooms ripped out to render the properties uninhabitable. All that remained was the shell of the garages, their roofs and doors having been ripped off. The asbestos roofs, much of the asbestos crumbling, was in two piles in front of the garages. No special precautions had been taken for dealing with asbestos. The crumbling asbestos simply dumped in front of the derelict, half demolished garages.

Tipped off that there was more activity down at Firgrove Court where they had been dismantling garages and dumping asbestos, a reporter went down expecting the evidence to have been removed and the asbestos gone. He found all the garages had gone, but in addition to the two piles of asbestos roofs that were there earlier, there was now in addition a pile of crumbling asbestos. Asbestos in situ and not crumbling is ok, but if it is removed and if it is crumbling, then it is very dangerous and should only be removed by specialist contractors. It has to be handled and disposed of as hazardous waste.

By the end of the week, it appeared as though all the evidence had gone, or so it seemed. But there was a large industrial skip filled with crumblin asbestos, exposed to the elements.

One of the remaining residents, who Pavilion had not yet been able to force out of her home watched the demolition take place, and she was shocked by what she saw. No special precautions had been taken to deal with the asbestos. She said the workmen were not even wearing gloves or masks. I also spoke with her husband, he confirmed no gloves, no masks, no special precautions taken for handling asbestos, he then added that asbestos dust was blowing around.

It had been very windy all week. A former employee of Pavilion told of asbestos contamination at a number of properties in Aldershot which Pavilion tried to cover up. One of these locations is a block of maisonettes. The maisonettes should have been demolished years ago and the tenants relocated. Instead, as no one wishes to live there, Pavilion uses the maisonettes as a sink into which they dump troublesome families, making the maisonettes blighted in more sense than one.

The maisonettes are subsiding, they are contaminated with asbestos, the asbestos is crumbling.

Pavilion has refused to take any action to remove the asbestos, preferring instead to lie to the tenants and tell them the asbestos is 'safe'. At least, that was their position a year ago.

To read the full account, please click on the link below:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396456.html