City of Vincent council approve concealing asbestos present in iconic grandstand at Beatty Park Leisure Centre

The City of Vincent has approved a request to ‘encapsulate’ asbestos in the heritage-listed grandstand at Beatty Park Leisure Centre. The near-$1m project will be funded through the city’s mid-year budget review and is set to take place between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years. Beatty Park was built in 1962 for the British Empire and Commonwealth Games. It was officially heritage-listed in 2004 and continues to offer a variety of different facilities. However, with old structures comes new issues — including the management of asbestos, a material used in construction of many commercial and residential properties before the 1980s. If exposed, the material can cause significant health issues and requires professional asbestos removal companies to ensure its safe disposal or concealment. The material is fairly harmless if it remains untouched or disturbed. The site was considered an emerging safety risk as the building has electrical and structural issues and will require significant capital work in future to ensure they remain safe. An evaluation panel recommended the council should decide to “encapsulate the existing contained window mastic material internal and external”, rather than removing the asbestos entirely. This option is expected to give the grandstand a 10-year service life before the treatment needs to be renewed or need to either renew the treatment or consider removing the asbestos. An officer’s report said “the 10-year period will allow the city to better understand the future structural and functional needs of the grandstand and build sufficient reserves for future mitigation works”. While the work will make the grandstand safe in respect of asbestos, the report said more work was needed to make it accessible to the public. It stressed that “without these works, access to the grandstand will be prohibited, preventing essential maintenance and posing safety risks to personnel and the public”. The grandstand will remain closed to the public until future work is completed.