City of Sydney council ignored calls to test parks for asbestos a month before the dangerous material was found in mulch in three different public places.
Councillor Linda Scott wrote to the council’s chief executive Monica Barone on January 13 with her concerns after the material was discovered at Rozelle Parklands in Sydney’s inner-west.
Greenlife Resource Recovery was named by the NSW Government as the alleged source of the asbestos-tainted mulch which was spread on public land across the city, including the parklands at the new Rozelle Interchange.
Ms Scott asked if the council had used mulch from Greenlife Resource Recovery and if the City of Sydney’s parks would be tested.
The council was told by a contractor that its mulch did not come from Greenlife and, as a result, no orders were made to carry out testing at the 400 parks and thousands of green beds within the electorate.
Bonded asbestos has since been found in mulch at Victoria Park and Belmore Park while friable asbestos was discovered at Harmony Park in Surry Hills.
More than a dozen other locations have been flagged as containing the hazardous material including a hospital and school with asbestos detected from the CBD to Emu Plains at the foot of the Blue Mountains, and from Parramatta to Campbelltown.
Victoria Park in Sydney, where bonded asbestos was found in mulch, is pictured on Wednesday, February 14, 2024
But Greenlife general manager Domenic Vitocco, son of billionaire boss Arnold Vitocco, 59, insists his company is not to blame
The revelation comes after asbestos was detected in parks, hospitals and schools forcing the cancellation of the opening event of the annual Mardi Gras Fair Day
‘More than a month ago, I wrote to the City of Sydney CEO requesting that we test every single City of Sydney Park in light of the discovery of asbestos in the Rozelle interchange,’ Ms Scott told Daily Mail .
‘I was disappointed several days later to receive a response that ruled out testing all the city’s parks.
‘Had we tested the parks at that time we could have potentially prevented a month’s worth of public exposure to asbestos in at least three of our city parks and potentially been able to facilitate Mardi Gras Fair Day occurring.’
Ms Scott said public health has to come before financial considerations.
‘When we’re dealing with asbestos, the precautionary principle should apply. We should over-test rather than trying to save money and not test.
‘This is a public health and safety issue and one fibre is enough to cause asbestosis. For those reasons I asked for every city park to be tested.
Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore accused Ms Scott of trying ‘to grab a quick headline’ over the issue.
In response, the Labor councillor said it was ‘disappointing to see … Ms Moore attack me today claiming I’m in search of a headline about my quest to fight for the city’s residents’ public health and safety.
‘I think her attack on me is political and unnecessary. What we need here is a focus on what the city did wrong and where we need an independent inquiry into that.’
Ms Scott wants ‘every single park’ tested and is ‘calling on the Lord Mayor to ensure she supports an independent investigation of the handling of this asbestos crisis’.
Six days after getting Ms Scott’s letter on January 13, Ms Barone reportedly told colleagues that the council had not got mulch from Greenlife in the past two years.
The revelation comes after asbestos was detected in parks, hospitals and schools forcing the cancellation of the opening event of the annual Mardi Gras Fair Day
But on Monday night, she said the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) had advised it to test five parks as some mulch may have come from Greenlife after all.
Three of the five tested returned positive results for mulch tainted with asbestos.
The NSW EPA has given Greenlife a deadline of Friday to contact everyone they’ve supplied with recycled mulch in order to begin the clean-up operation.
But Greenlife general manager Domenic Vitocco, son of billionaire boss Arnold Vitocco, 59, insists his company is not to blame.
‘We feel we’ve been made a scapegoat,’ he told Daily Mail .
‘We’re not quite sure ourselves how this has happened.
‘All the testing from the EPA has come back from our yard clean. Our testing has come back clear and we’re a little bit puzzled as to how this is all happening.
‘During the investigation, I can’t really talk too much, but what I do know is that a number of these sites are major remediation sites… but I can’t comment further.’
Sydney councillor Linda Scott (pictured) wrote to the council’s chief executive Monica Barone on January 13 with her concerns after asbestos was discovered at Rozelle Parklands
Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore (pictured) said it could not have tested all of the 400 parks and thousands of garden beds under the council’s control ‘when there was no indication there was an issue’
Most of the asbestos found so far has been bonded asbestos which poses less of a risk, but the more dangerous friable asbestos was discovered at Harmony Park in Surry Hills on Monday.
NSW Premier Chris Minns vowed to pursue those responsible after the latest discovery, and said Greenlife was in his sights.
He insisted the government was ‘not aware of any other corporation or firm that may have been responsible for the distribution’.
‘The firm, it’s reasonable to say, is fighting the suggestion that they’re responsible for the contamination within public facilities and public parks,’ he said.
‘That particular kind of (friable) asbestos – not the bonded asbestos – being found in a park in Sydney is deeply worrying…This is completely unacceptable.
‘We (need to) make sure that compliance action is taken against companies (allegedly) doing the wrong thing.
‘We cannot have a situation where major public facilities like … schools and parks have asbestos in them. The government is prepared to take action.’
Daily Mail contacted Ms Moore for comment.