A COMMUNITY-spirited waste disposal firm came to the rescue of a village hall committee and removed potentially dangerous asbestos dumped by fly-tippers.

Hardley-based Solent Environmental Services Asbestos Ltd stepped in and removed about a tonne of the hazardous material from the grounds of Plaitford Village Hall free of charge.

This followed Test Valley Borough Council’s refusal to dispose of the materials because it was dumped on private land. After reading a report of the hall committee’s plight, Solent’s contracts manager, Ian Chiddicks, contacted committed chairman Sarah Pearce to offer his firm’s services free of charge.

Sarah said: “They are our knights in shining armour.”

The committee have been busy raising funds towards the next phase of the hall refurbishment, to redecorate the main room from floor to ceiling, and they feared the £300 cost of removing the asbestos would have held back their plans.

“Having Ian coming forward to help us has been a huge relief and the village hall committee would like to say a big thank you to Solent Environmental Services for their assistance in this matter,” added Sarah.

She said that TVBC could have removed the asbestos as a “goodwill gesture” because the committee doesn’t charge the authority for placing its recycling bins in the hall car park.

Mr Chiddicks said: “Village halls are the hub of the community and should be supported. We were only too pleased to help them and keep the local community ticking. Asbestos can be a health issue if it is not disposed of properly. We removed three bags and a pile of asbestos from the village hall car park. There was close on a ton of it. It looks like it came off a garage roof.

“We come across this sort of thing regularly and we do a lot of work for Eastleigh Borough Council. The same day we removed the asbestos from Plaitford, we removed 900 kilos from Satchell Lane in Hamble.”