ARLINGTON REAL ESTATE is now behind schedule in clearing Milburngate House in Durham City because it has discovered more asbestos than anticipated (Echo, Sept 29).

This suggests that official records were not fully documented. I retired from Cleveland County/Stockton council 17 years ago and we had a dedicated asbestos team which had records of every local authority building.

Every room, office, boilerhouse and plant room was tested to identify the types of asbestos present.

These documents were kept on site, marked and signed, so employees and contractors would be aware of its existence and position, and would not touch it until an asbestos-registered team was brought in to remove it safely.

My concern is that if Arlington Real Estates did not know about the full extent of the asbestos, people who worked within the building from the 1960s might also not have known about all of this highly dangerous material.

Where are the records?

David Johnson, Bishop Auckland