Scots hotel owners 'playing with lives' amid claims asbestos report 'ignored'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Wealthy hotel bosses have been accused of playing with lives by ignoring a report which, it is claimed, warned asbestos may have been present at the accommodation.

Willie Stafford was sacked by the St Enoch Hotel in Glasgow when he raised concerns. And he is now demanding to know what exactly happened to the suspected high levels of asbestos in the building, which is exclusively used by Glasgow City Council to house homeless people.

The St Enoch has the same management as the Queens Park Hotel, which has been slammed for poor conditions.Former maintenance manager Willie worked for the St Enoch in 2020, when it was undergoing renovations in areas where one survey firm believed asbestos was present.He was dismissed after telling management that moving the cancerous materials could be fatal for residents.Willie, 56, won an employment tribunal later that year, which ruled he had been unfairly dismissed after speaking out.Willie said he was astonished when, prior to his sacking, management told him they had instructed a second company who found there was no asbestos in the building.Willie said: “The hotel was undergoing a big renovation connected to all the work coming in for homeless services at Glasgow City Council, which was making them a fortune.“I spoke to the first surveyor firm, from Edinburgh, and they told me the hotel did not have an asbestos register, which it was required to have in law.“The firm also said all the disruptive work that was going on should stop immediately, pending test results on the suspected asbestos samples, because anyone in the hotel could be inhaling fibres that could kill them.