Manapouri Hall Temporarily Closed

Southland District Council is closing the Manapouri Hall temporarily while asbestos found on the outside wall of the hall is cleaned up.

Council chief executive Cameron McIntosh said the hall was being prepared for painting when contractors noticed what they thought was asbestos on the cladding under the windows.

"The contractors contacted us, put up fencing to keep people away and we called in official testers to determine if it was asbestos," Mr McIntosh said.

The results came back to Council late yesterday as positive and WorkSafe was notified last night.

Mr McIntosh said the hall is being closed for a week as a precautionary measure, while additional air monitoring is done around the hall and the clean-up starts.

Staff are working with WorkSafe for a timeline to start the remediation of the site, with the asbestos to be removed completely when this happens.