Yass residents Terry and Michelle Apps are desperate for action from council after expressing their grave concerns about an asbestos-plagued neighbouring property, on the Hume Highway.
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The couple told the Tribune that they don’t know what else to do, they are at their "wits end" and are sick of the hoops that council are putting them through.
The bushfire that left Mr Apps in a coma and his neighbouring property in a heap of rubble is yet to be cleaned up. The property contains asbestos in the building material.
“This has been 10 months since the fire. I contacted council four weeks after I was discharged from hospital to discuss the problem. I was told something was going to be done about it," he said.
“After some months I contacted council again after nothing had been done, sending emails to councillors as well, via letter, email and phone. Council told me signs were going to be put in place.
“After the initial fire the property was demolished without proper asbestos procedures.”
Mr Apps said the owner had received two requests by council to clean up the property.
“Three to four weeks ago the owner set fire to the rest of the rubble to clean it up. To my knowledge he didn’t have a permit and the firefighters got the call."
“Now I have done an asbestos awareness course and setting fire to asbestos causing fibres to be scattered into the air. This is a huge issue.”
The Apps' first contacted council of the issue after the initial fire in January. Since then have written to council on September 24 following an absence of action.
“They put up two small signs on the gate of the property, no bigger than A4 pieces of paper and they were originally handwritten,” Mr Apps continued.
A response from council dated October 2, stated - "While it is acknowledged that it is a potential hazard… public health risk is extremely low.”
“Compliance with this order will be reviewed at the end of the month. If the works have not been carried out council will consider alternative avenues…” The letter was signed by John Mannweiller, Building Certification Coordinator.
Mr Apps told the Tribune that following the lack of response from council, he tried to speak to General Manager David Rowe on October 9 and 16 but was answered via email 63 days after his original letter.
The response from Mr Rowe was - “Following your letter dated 24 September, John Mannweiller responded to you on the 2nd October… If you require any further information, please contact John…”
Although sympathetic to the Apps' situation, Director of Planning and Environmental Services, Chris Berry, told the Tribune it was simply a matter of time.
"The time limits are in place for action to be taken," he said.
"He seems to be frustrated that it isn't happening quick enough and I can understand that...but there's no urgency for this to be done today because it has been assessed as being at the low risk end of the spectrum.
"If this was high risk then we'd be instructed for different action to be taken...but we've kept [Terry] in the loop the whole time and we share Terry's frustration and ideally I would agree with him that it needs to be removed from the site."
Mr Apps however disputes the 'low risk' nature of the hazard.
“This is a serious issue, it is a couple of hundred metres from the parking bay on the Hume which people are constantly stopping in, it is also around two kilometres from our home which is nothing with those westerly winds,” he said.
“We just want the problem dealt with. We are no longer ignorant to the problems of asbestos. We were promised action, little to nothing has been done, we were promised that the air would be tested and nothing was done. What else do we have to do?”