I am disappointed that this not the first time I am expressing serious concerns about the operational capacity of Liverpool City Council. Many would have seen last week's Seven News report that bonded asbestos was found at Pye Hill Reserve in Cecil Hills. A subsequent report identified a second contaminated site on newly installed footpaths along Rickard Road in Chipping Norton. The issue is not that asbestos was discovered at Pye Hill Reserve. Thankfully, the material found posed an extremely low risk to residents. The real concern is the secrecy and delay that surrounded this matter from the get-go.
A leaked memo provided to the mayor and councillors shows that the council was first notified of likely asbestos contamination at Pye Hill Reserve on 17 August. Despite this, it took 12 days for protective fencing to be installed on 29 August. The memo clearly contradicts comments made by Liverpool City Council CEO Jason Breton to Seven News, where he claimed fencing was installed the day after notification. The word "asbestos" only entered public consciousness when warning signs were put up in late September, unannounced. There was no community notice or proactive communication from council.
Matt Marchetta posted on the Cecil Hills Facebook group after he noticed the signs whilst out walking his dog, which triggered others to start asking questions. How long had council known? How big was the risk? Why had no-one been told sooner? They were all reasonable questions. Contrary to the statements made by the CEO and the contents of the leaked memo, the photograph attached to Mr Marchetta's post shows no safety fencing in sight. This raises serious questions about the accuracy of council's claims and the timeline of its response. I am still uncertain whether any fencing was installed between council's initial notification of asbestos concerns and the point at which residents brought the matter to wider public attention.
Instead of meeting those questions with honesty and transparency, council scrambled to spin the narrative. A letterbox drop to nearby residents was conducted, but many in Cecil Hills report never receiving anything. Those who did receive the letter have reported that it was confusing and did not even contain the word "asbestos". The community was left to piece together the truth from media reports and social media discussions rather than hearing it directly from the authority responsible. To make matters worse, after this issue became public, Liverpool City Council's media team reportedly spent days attempting to shift the blame. Multiple sources told me that an alternative version of events was being shopped around, suggesting that responsibility somehow lay with anyone but themselves. This whole saga is not just sloppy; it is disrespectful to the people of Cecil Hills. When it comes to public health and safety, residents have a right to clear, timely and truthful information. They should not have to rely on leaked documents or investigative journalists to access information their council already knows. The council's silence and half-truths have eroded community trust and further undermined confidence in their leadership.
In just a few months, Liverpool has again become a case study in incompetence. We have seen the fiasco of the diamond-shaped roundabout in Austral, and now the slow and secretive handling of asbestos contamination in Liverpool. These are not isolated mistakes. These are symptoms of a deeper culture of mismanagement and denial. One of these blunders might be excused as bad luck or as an oversight, but this pattern of repeated incompetence reveals a troubling pattern of poor governance and a disregard for public accountability. Our community is right to question whether they can have confidence in this council's leadership.
This issue also begs the question of whether other sites might be impacted. Locals deserve to know so that they are not second guessing every time they see glass or debris in fill or landscaping when taking their kids to visit the local park. There was a significant issue that attracted widespread attention last year, and as a result the Environment Protection Authority made significant changes and funded response mechanisms. The council should have learned from that and prevented this from happening in this first place. The last time council tried to cover up asbestos contamination from our community, the CEO was held accountable and sacked.
Liverpool deserves leadership that values honesty and accountability, not spin and secrecy. This entire episode exposes a serious problem with those in charge at Liverpool City Council. At best Mr Breton, CEO, has demonstrated a loose relationship with the truth. At worst, he has deliberately misled the people of Liverpool about what the council knew and when it knew it. Either scenario is unacceptable. I have lost confidence in Mr Breton's capacity to lead Liverpool City Council. He can speak as smoothly as he likes or deploy grand metaphors, but he cannot hide the fact that he is just not up to the job.
