Asbestos is found on Paradise site

24 Feb 2005 

Summary of PressRelease

DEVELOPERS today insisted Liverpool's £800m Grosvenor project was still on schedule - despite finding asbestos in the Moat House hotel.

The 1960s building is due to be flattened to make way for a massive shopping and leisure complex around Paradise Street.

Experts preparing the hotel for demolition discovered quantities of the potentially deadly substance in walls and ceilings while carrying out stringent checks.

It is now being removed by specialist contractors before the bulldozers can move in.

But Grosvenor today insisted the discovery would not disrupt the project's tight timescale and work to bring the Moat House down should start within the next two or three weeks.

Project director Rod Holmes said the extent of asbestos in the building was not known.

"It is quite usual to discover asbestos when dealing with a building of this age and there are tried and tested procedures for removing it," he said.

"We anticipated there might be asbestos in the Moat House and allowed for that when drawing up the timescale.

"There should not be any delays.

"A specialist firm is starting removing it. That should take about six to eight weeks.

"However, demolition work will start on parts of the Moat House where no asbestos has been found in two or three weeks' time. By Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

Index