MORE than 100 council tenants in Bishop Auckland have been warned their 30-year-old homes could contain asbestos.

There could also be structural defects in houses on the St Andrew's Road Estate, where Wear Valley District Council distributed letters to 118 tenants yesterday.

Ten sample properties will be checked next month after structural problems were found in houses in the North-West of England which are similar to the homes in St Andrew's Road.

Asbestos was discovered on the Bishop Auckland estate at the beginning of the year, when engineers installing central heating in a house found a trace of the material in an internal wall panel.

The material was once widely used as a heat insulator, but it is now virtually banned, because if it is disturbed it can release cancer-causing fibres into the air.

However, Government leaflets circulated to the tenants yesterday point out that the material can be perfectly safe if it is in good condition.

The council's housing department is opening advice centres for residents from 8am to 8pm today and tomorrow, at the Taylor Road Community Centre.

Asbestos experts from MIS will start checking the buildings next month, spending about an hour taking samples from the inside of each of the ten homes. External checks on the structural integrity of the houses could take up to a week at a time.

A council spokesman said last night: "Government guidelines stress that it is very unlikely that levels of asbestos found in buildings will be harmful, but damaged asbestos should result in action being taken. This is not damaged."

Alan Northcote, the council's area manager, said: "We are confident our survey can be completed quickly and we have engaged the services of experts in the field to ensure accurate results."