Troublesome discovery at Ayr high flats puts plan to save buildings in doubt

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Conservatives’ promise to save Ayr’s High Flats could be scuppered after the discovery of asbestos.Pre-demolition work has begun on the first of the three blocks at Riverside Place, with an asbestos survey completed last week.The results are yet to be reported by South Ayrshire Council, but Housing Portfolio holder Councillor Martin Kilbride confirmed that surveyors have discovered asbestos in the first block of the flats.Conservative council leader, Martin Dowey, made saving the high flats one of the main parts of his manifesto at May’s local elections.But the discovery of asbestos contamination makes refurbishment of the buildings a far less likely scenario, with the scheduled demolition now set to continue.Councillor Kilbride told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that an independent asbestos survey had been undertaken as part of the demolition contract, signed under the previous administration.Around 600 samples had been taken from the first block of flats during the survey and the results are due tomorrow (Wednesday).He said: “We will have to look at just how much asbestos there is in the buildings and then look at the feasibility of refurbishment.”The decision to demolish the buildings followed an assessment of cladding in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.A comprehensive survey in 2018 had seen previous estimated cost of refurbishment at between £9m and £17m rise significantly to between £28m and £35m.South Ayrshire Council said that a more extensive assessment of the building had been carried out and that this had resulted in the increased costs seen in the 2018 report.However, the levels of asbestos were not fully assessed during this survey.A council spokesperson said: “We can confirm that