A HOUSING firm is urgently removing potentially lethal asbestos which residents discovered under the floors of a multi-million pound development in Ilkley.

Residents were shocked to discover the substance around pipes under the floors at Wells House, the former Victorian spa and one-time Ilkley College site. A surveyor made the discovery when called in to assess the floor of one flat.

Now developer Magellan has brought in specialist contractors to safely dispose of the asbestos - although it says the building had an asbestos-free certificate when it took over the site.

Specialists brought in by Magellan identified brown asbestos, and the less harmful white asbestos. No 'blue asbestos' - the most harmful type - was found in the building.

But they ruled that particles of the asbestos there were at high risk of eventually filtering into the air in the building, if left in place and disturbed in future.

Former Addingham resident Robin English paid almost a quarter of a million pounds for his luxury ground floor flat, which he and partner Liz Howie bought as a retirement house.

Dr English, 54, said they were barely able to believe it when his surveyor - called in to check an uneven floor - spotted the substance around pipes under the floorboards.

"I felt such disbelief. They were going down looking for damp, but he came out very quickly saying there was asbestos. That was real blow to us," said Dr English.

Aside from the associated health fears, dentist Mr English says he could stand to lose tens of thousands of pounds of furniture he bought for the flat, if asbestos dust contaminated it.

He wanted to be sure the problem was sorted out before Magellan moved out, and management firm CPM Northern took on the management of Wells House's communal areas.

He said Magellan had declined his request to allow a surveyor to study the flat's uneven floor before he bought it, as carpets had been laid. A firm monitoring the asbestos removal has placed a detector in Dr English's flat itself, to check for particles of asbestos - although none has so far been found.

Magellan's sales manager, Pearce Lynch, told the Ilkley Gazette the firm had acted as soon as it heard about the asbestos, and had informed all the residents as soon as possible. He said Magellan knew nothing of the asbestos until Dr English's surveyor found it.

Mr Lynch said: "That was the first time we were aware we had an asbestos problem. We got our own people to survey it, and for the past five or six weeks, we've been spending a lot of money to have it removed.

"We had a certificate saying it was clear. There are some areas under the floor that had been blocked up for years and years. We initially thought the operation would take five weeks. We then extended the investigation, and we found there was a very low level under two more apartments."

Mr Lynch confirmed that a survey carried out on behalf of Magellan found brown asbestos, and the less harmful white asbestos. He also confirmed that contractors rated the substance as being at a high risk of being released into the air if left in place.

Mr Lynch said the Health and Safety Executive had been informed, and were 'happy' with the removal work proposed.

He said the firm would have moved out the residents if there had been a serious asbestos problem, but said the current risk to residents was 'really minimal'.

He says Magellan wrote to all Wells House residents when the asbestos was discovered, but staff also managed to speak to the residents before the letters arrived - apart from one couple who were away on holiday.

Dr English's request to send in surveyor before moving in was turned down because carpets had been laid, said Mr Lynch, and