Hilltops Council general manager Dr Edwina Marks has admitted staff at the council made a mistake when they made a decision on how to dispose of asbestos found during renovations at the Young pool instead of bringing the issue back to council.
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Dr Marks made the admission at this week's Council meeting amid calls for investigations into how decisions were made to remove and dispose of the material.
The pool project will now cost close to $1 million more than originally budgeted.
Councillors were asked at the meeting to acknowledge the total asbestos cleanup costs of $667,640; endorse variation of the project contract to cover the asbestos cleanup, splash pad and increased foundation costs, increasing the total contract value from $2,181,283 to $3,131,283 and; endorse a change of project scope to include a zero-depth splash pad in lieu of a splash pool.
A suggestion to halt work on the project failed with councillors told the project was at a stage where doing so would make no difference to the matters being discussed.
Dr Marks told councillors the project was on schedule for the pool to open on time for this year's swim season.
The overspend on the project was reported after the removal of 900 tonnes of Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) from the site.
"This project has been handled poorly," mayor Brian Ingram said at Wednesday's meeting.
Councillor Tony Flanery said he couldn't see how council could vote on what was presented to it while Cr Matt Stadtmiller said those responsible should "hand in their badge".
"We clearly did make a mistake, we do not need an investigation in order to establish that, good practice should have been that we brought this to council as quickly as we could," Dr Marks said.
"Ultimately the decision would have been the same to remove the soil from the site because that is our legal obligation.
"But we did make a mistake at that point, absolutely. I do apologise to council that we did not bring it to them earlier. Our aim was not to deceive," she said.
Cr Tony Flanery said he believed staff had reports "that were clearly ignored, I believe so that council didn't go back on its decision" to carry out the project.
"I think it is a serious issue," he said.
Cr Flanery called for an emergency meeting to be held next week, on Wednesday, September 4, to discuss the matter further.
Council voted to defer the item to an extraordinary meeting on September 11 but not halt the current works.
Councillor Stadtmiller voted against the motion.
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