Entire asbestos-contaminated building stolen in Otago and thieves advised to dispose of it

An asbestos-contaminated building stolen from the back hills of East Otago has been tracked down, and its new owners advised to safely dispose of it.

Waitaki District Council officers were informed of the unapproved removal of a disused Dunback Boys Brigade building following Labour Weekend on Tuesday, October 24, which is considered theft, though Mayor Gary Kircher was not displeased by the incident.

Speaking to the Herald, Kircher said the building had been marked for removal for some time and its unapproved relocation was actually a cost-saver for the council.

Councillor Jim Thompson said “a bit of detective work” went into tracking down the building, and several locals claimed to have witnessed it leaving on the back of a truck.

He said the building was a World War II-era collapsible build barracks, which would have made its relocation easy.

The building was eventually found to have crossed the border into Dunedin and had been relocated to another property, said Kircher.

The property-owners had since been contacted and advised of the building’s potential asbestos contamination and encouraged to safely dispose of it, though due to the circumstances no legal action would be taken.

“We really appreciate them taking it away from us... we have a few other buildings we’d like to get rid of if they are interested,” he joked.

In a report submitted to the Waihemo Community Board earlier this week, the council’s assets operations manager Joshua Rendell said council officers had previously run a process seeking submissions from the public to purchase and remove the buildings though they had not received any interest.

“However, the Parks and Recreation team had been undertaking necessary investigatory works prior to demolition which showed the building contained asbestos.

“Follow up inspection of the site showed that there has been contamination during the unapproved demolition, so further clean up by registered professionals will need to be undertaken.”

The report noted the area around the vanished building has since been taped off to prevent public access, and contractors would remove any remaining debris in the near future.

While the costs of remediating the area were not yet know, it was believe they believed they could exceed the costs of removal of the building.

“Officers urge whoever has removed the building to dispose of it in a safe manner appropriate with the relevant legislation, which is the Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016.”