A resident, who does not want to be named, said it should not have taken the City more than a week to remove it.
She said she contacted the council on Friday, September 19 after Roads 2000 contractors damaged part of her asbestos fence.
The contractors were hired by Stirling to lay bitumen in the laneway.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOW‘There were bits of the asbestos in the bitumen,’ the resident said. ‘Then they pulverised it, so it was in the air.’
She said that when she contacted the council, she was told to write a complaint and get in touch with the contractor directly.
‘Why triggering corrective action must apparently fall upon aggrieved citizens to register via a written complaint is beyond comprehension and common sense,’ she said.
‘It is nothing short of gross negligence that council workers on the job did not take immediate action on Friday to contain the damage and did not exercise the basic courtesy to report the damage to residents and notify of the health risk.’
Operations manager Ron Spragg said the ‘matter is being attended to as a matter of urgency and will be safe for anyone using the laneway’. ‘The City met with contractors and the issue is being investigated with the view to being resolved,’ he said. ‘The City has also been liaising with the resident and we will be replacing the fence.’
A licensed asbestos removal contractor visited the laneway on September 30. The council will pay for the asbestos fencing to be removed and new fencing to be installed.