Dear Group
Having recently attended the CIRIA/LQM Asbestos in Ground course and in anticipation of the CIRIA Practitioners Guide readers may be aware of estimates that 75% of all commercial buildings and 2.4M homes building between1965 and 1985 are impacted with asbestos. Furthermore asbestos, although banned, was still being used in 2000 and therefore its presence in modern developments cannot be discounted.
As effective and verifiable pre-demolition asbestos removal does not apear to be gauranteed it must be assumed (applying the precautionary principle) that all demolition sites (1965 to 2000) are affected and should be subject to asbestos investigation and assessment (ACM and free fibre) prior to redevelopment, enforced through appropriate planning condition(s). As to how to conduct suitably robust investigation, analysis, risk assessment and management of asbestos in ground (by a suitable competent person) is still very much something of an unknown - We wait for the guidance with baited breadth!
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