A FORMER council worker has been given more than £10,000 in compensation after contracting cancer.

The carpenter, who left the authority in 2001 and has not been named, was paid out £10,605.65 from Hyndburn Council after successfully claiming exposure to asbestos caused him to develop mesothelioma, a rare cancer.

The sum of money was revealed in council expenditure documents, but the reason for the payout only came to light after the Lancashire Telegraph asked for more details under Freedom of Information laws.

The council ‘no longer undertakes this type of work’ and does not have any other cases of this type in the pipeline, it said in documents Council leader Miles Parkinson said: “These claims go back to the 50s, 60s, and 70s when public housing, and council and other public buildings might have, unfortunately, had asbestos in them. By now it will have either been removed safely or the buildings have to have a statement saying if it has asbestos, and any work has to be carried out by a qualified company with protective gear.”

“We have a responsibility for duty in care. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but most people believed it was a safe product.

“We wish all our former employees good health in retirement.”

Although Cllr Parkinson could not say how many claims of this type the council has received in recent years, he said they would mainly apply to former maintenance workers.

Around 2,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year.

Cancer Research UK said asbestos causes most cases of mesothelioma, although the link has only been known since the 1960s.

The number of people diagnosed is expected to rise sharply for the next few years due to heavy asbestos us in industry from the late 1940s end of the Second World War until the mid-70s, the charity said.

Asbestos was widely used as an insulation and fire-proofing solution in products such as ceiling tiles, pipe insulation, boilers, and sprayed coatings, until its true danger was realised.

The Lancashire Telegraph’s medical expert, Dr Tom Smith, said it can often take decades after exposure for the cancer to develop.

He said: “These very fine, powdery particles are breathed in and cannot be breathed back out again.

“They are lodged near the surface of the lung, the lung reacts against it over time until it becomes cancerous.

“It’s an awful disease. I learned about how dangerous asbestos was in the 60s. We knew about it for years and did nothing about it.”

A spokeswoman for Forbes Solicitor, the Blackburn firm representing the man, declined to comment.