Council’s silence on asbestos at North Richmond’s Peel Park

Hawkesbury Council are keeping quiet about the asbestos situation at North Richmond’s Peel Park, part of which has been fenced off with warning signs put up for over a month.

Several councillors tell us they have not been briefed about the situation at the park’s BMX track and off-leash dog park, despite it being closed for over a month, and the Council have not alerted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or released any information to the public about the situation with the closed bike track and off-leash dog area.

Local media have not been told anything about the situation.

When we visited last week there was no evidence of any work going on at the site.

We asked Council about the situation last week and posed several questions but we have so far not received any comment back from them.

Redbank Communities, who will be making improvements to the park in due course – as part of their Voluntary Planning Agreement with Council – told the Post their understanding was that when contractors for Hawkesbury Council placed fill at the site that could well have contained asbestos.

It is not clear how asbestos got on the site – that was one of our questions to Council – and what the extent is of any asbestos contamination.

The EPA told us they had not been informed about the suspected asbestos contamination but added they did not necessarily need to be told – that was dependent on whether the asbestos found was one of two types, but given the lack of information from Hawkesbury Council it’s hard to know what the scale or type of contamination is.

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