SUSPECTED asbestos has been found at a popular Cirencester green space which has been earmarked for development.

Developer Baylight Properties has applied to build up to 69 homes on the Humpty Dumps, off Bowling Green Lane, and its contamination tests organised as part of the application, uncovered materials suspected to contain asbestos.

Baylight spokesman Mark Freeman, said:“Should permission be approved, a condition would therefore be attached requiring remediation of the site.”

Godfrey Curtis, 58, of Berry Hill Crescent, said he remembers workmen dumping truck loads of asbestos sheeting onto the Humpty Dumps, in the 1960s, and he believes there is more undiscovered on the site.

Cirencester Town Council owns part of the Humpty Dumps near where the homes are proposed.

Chief executive officer Andrew Tubb, said: “Contaminated land is often dealt with as a planning condition before building work is allowed to commence. Also, the removal or capping would need to be carried out safely in accordance with health and safety legislation.

“I am not aware that asbestos itself is a material reason for refusing an application; however, the developer will need to demonstrate how it would deal with contaminated land and quite likely would need to undertake further testing.”

Mr Tubb added that the town council has requested that the Humpty Dumps are formally identified as open space and not allocated for development in the emerging Local Plan.

Plans to build homes in the Humpty Dumps were delayed when residents group, the Friends of the Humpty Dumps applied for the area to be designated with village green status but Gloucestershire County Council decided in April not to grant the status.