Ray Walsh House remediation

Background

Council’s administrative headquarters, Ray Walsh House, was vacated in 2022 after the failure of the air conditioning system servicing three of the five floors of the building.

The presence of friable asbestos was found in Vermiculite fire protection sprayed on all structural steel floor members. This meant that the replacement of the air conditioning system was not possible without first removing the asbestos-containing material.

As an employer, Council’s key responsibility under the law is to provide a safe workplace. With the safety and wellbeing of staff foremost, there was a staged relocation of workers from the premises. The priority was determined according to the level of known potential risk to the health of staff.

Since that time, Council staff have been working closely with NSW Public Works to investigate and develop options for the potential remediation and redevelopment of the building.

What's next?

At the 28 May 2024 Ordinary Meeting, Councillors resolved not to remediate the building for reoccupation by Council staff and Council operations.

They also agreed to investigate options to improve accommodation for staff over the medium term of up to 10 years and have requested that the General Manager develop an options paper about the future disposal of Ray Walsh House for further consideration by Council. 

It will take some time for the options report to be completed and it will be a decision to be made by the new Council elected in September 2024. The options paper will be subject to broad community consultation. 

Councillors also agreed to make all documents associated with the Ray Walsh House remediation available for public scrutiny.

Since the end of May, Council staff have been going through Council’s records and collating the documents for publication. Some of the documents contain commercial-in-confidence information or information from third parties and those sections have been redacted to allow Council to legally share them with our community in the interests of transparency and accountability. As of Monday 22 July 2024 they have been published on this page

In the meantime, Councillors agreed it is important to explore accommodation options to reconsolidate staff because the current six locations result in a disjointed and inefficient spread of staff. It is considered that one larger space would be a positive move.

Document contents

Please understand that in line with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (Section 14 Table 3 (a), (b) & (c) - Business interests of agencies and other persons), some information in the documents has been hidden from view or redacted before their publication. The redaction prevents:

  • (a) commercial-in-confidence provisions of a government contract from being revealed;
  • (b) the competitive commercial value of any information to any person from being diminished; and
  • (c) any person's legitimate business, commercial, professional or financial interests from being prejudiced.

Some documents have been completely redacted. Where this occurs it is to comply with the Copyright Act 1968. Under the Act, because the contents of those documents are not the intellectual property of Tamworth Regional Council and it is not permitted to publish them. However, members of the community who wish to see the documents subject to Copyright can view them by appointment. Please contact our customer service team by calling 6767 5555 to make an appointment, should you wish to view these documents. 

Type Title Description Size KB
Document: Friable Asbestos Incident - FAQs.pdf Friable Asbestos Incident - FAQs.pdf 86
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 7 December 2021 7 December 2021 1072
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 8 December 2021 8 December 2021 543
Document: EnviroScience Report - Scope of Works for Asbestos Remediation Ray Walsh House - 9 December 2021.pdf 9 December 2021 1769
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 9 December 2021 9 December 2021 1033
Document: EnviroScience Report - Asbestos Site Assessment and Scope of Works for Remediation - redacted.pdf 10 December 2021 2107
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 14 December 2021 14 December 2021 555
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 17 December 2021 17 December 2021 656
Document: EnviroScience Report – Friable Visual Asbestos Clearance dated 21 December 2021_redacted.pdf 21 December 2021 1618
Document: Enviroscience Report - Adhesive Tape Sampling Report- Ray Walsh House dated 23 December 2021- redacted.pdf 23 December 2021 3900
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 23 December 2021 23 December 2021 2372
Document: EnviroScience Report - Asbestos Register & Management Plan_redacted.pdf 14 January 2022 37031
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 2 February 2022 2 February 2022 592
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 23 February 2022 23 February 2022 753
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 14 March 2022 14 March 2022 1202
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 9 May 2022 9 May 2022 785
Document: EnviroScience Asbestos Identification Report B26609R1 dated 10 May 2022.pdf 10 May 2022 701
Document: Enviroscience Asbestos Identification Report B26742R1 dated 3 June 2022.pdf 3 June 2022 478
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 9 June 2022 9 June 2022 711
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 9 June 2022 9 June 2022 1424
Document: EnvroScience Report - Recommendations for Remediation dated 14 June 2022 - redacted.pdf 14 June 2022 1098
Document: Appendix D - Cost Plan Report R1 (1)_redacted.pdf 16 June 2022 201
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 16 June 2022 16 June 2022 1006
Document: All Staff Email - Ray walsh House - 17 June 2022 17 June 2022 1192
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 21 June 2022 21 June 2022 1179
Document: EnviroScience Asbestos Identification Report B26838R1 dated 27 June 2022.pdf 27 June 2022 243
Document: EnviroScience Asbestos Identification Report B26838R2 dated 1 July 2022.pdf 1 July 2022 244
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 11 July 2022 11 July 2022 541
Document: All Staff Email- Ray Walsh House - 13 July 2022 13 July 2022 538
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 29 July 2022 29 July 2022 593
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 5 August 2022 5 August 2022 526
Document: Public Works - Ray Walsh House Prelliminary Fee Proposal-22 August 2022- redacted.pdf 22 August 2022 843
Document: Council Report - 13 September 2022 - Ray Walsh House - Asbestos Removal and Refurbishment.pdf 13 September 2022 98
Document: Council Report - 13 September 2022 - Ray Walsh House - Staff Relocation.pdf 13 September 2022 140
Document: Enclosure to Council report 13 September 2022 - Ray Walsh House Refurbishment Preliminary Service Fee Proposal.pdf 13 September 2022 826
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 21 September 2022 21 September 2022 1391
Document: Enviroscience Estimation of Airborne Asbestos Fibres A27694R1 dated 14 December 2022.pdf 14 December 2022 435
Document: EJE Architechs Appendix C - RWH Test Fit_redacted.pdf EJE Architechs Appendix C - RWH Test Fit_redacted.pdf 232
Document: EnviroScience Asbestos Identification Report B27950R1 dated 3 January 2023.pdf 3 January 2023 212
Document: Public Works - TRC Approval of Strucutral Services Tender - 8 March 2023.pdf 8 March 2023 1237
Document: Public Works - TRC Approval of Strucutral Services Tender - 8 March 2023_redacted.pdf 8 March 2023 697
Document: COUNCIL REPORT - 28 March 2023 - Ray Walsh House Relocation Project - Update and Budget Variation Ap.pdf 28 March 2023 96
Document: Blackett Mcguire Goldsmith and Appendix B - NCC DDA Report.pdf 13 April 2023 4395
Document: Northcorp Appendix A - Structural Report_redacted.pdf 4 May 2023 84830
Document: EnviroScience Asbestos Identification Report B28696R1 dated 17 May 2023.pdf 17 May 2023 211
Document: Public Works - RFT - 10055221 - Tender recommendation -Stage 1 - 19 June 2023 Redacted .pdf 19 June 2023 Redacted 648
Document: Appendix D - Cost Plan Report R1 Redacted.pdf 27 June 2023 1232
Document: Public Works - Progress Report - 30 June 23.pdf 30 June 23 739
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 5 July 2023 5 July 2023 931
Document: Public Works - High Level Estimate for Asbestos Removal Works - 17 July 2023 - Redacted.pdf 17 July 2023 148
Document: Public Works - Project Defintion Report (Draft V2) July 23 - redacted.pdf 17 July 23 1239
Document: All Staff Email - Ray Walsh House - 27 September 2023 27 September 2023 553
Document: Public Works - RFT-10055221 Notification of Completion - Ray Walsh House Refurbishment Stage 1 Demolition and Remediation - 6 October 2023 - redacted.pdf 6 October 2023 77
Document: MEDIA UPDATE - Council seeks State support for remediation - 26022024.pdf 26 February 2024 195
Document: Public Works - Financial Summary for TRC Audit - 29 February 2024 - redacted.pdf 29 February 2024 77
Document: MEDIA UPDATE - Council Meeting update - 28052024.pdf MEDIA UPDATE - Council Meeting update - 28052024.pdf 173
Document: Council Report - Ray Walsh House - 29 May 2024.pdf Council Report - Ray Walsh House - 29 May 2024.pdf 204

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