Contaminated land strategy

The identification of statutorily contaminated land will be carried out in an ordered, rational and efficient manner based firmly on the principles of risk assessment and it will be implemented using a staged approach that will make the best use of scarce resources.

Stage 1: Initial Risk Prioritisation:

Stage 1 of the approach to identify statutorily contaminated land is to undertake a desktop survey of the Borough with the purpose of identifying:

1.  Land which may have been associated with a contaminative activity, now or historically (e.g. sources of contamination)
2.  Identification of the circumstances of each site of suspected contaminated land (e.g. what receptors and what pathways are associated with that area)
3. Conduct a risk assessment based on the information collected in (1) and (2) so that the sites can be ranked, in a prioritisation list, in order of likelihood of causing harm to receptors

The resulting prioritisation list will be used to inform the priority to be given to any further investigation of the potentially contaminated sites under Stage 2 of the process to identify statutorily contaminated land.

Examples of the sources of information that have been used to produce a prioritisation list of sites and to maintain it are detailed in Appendix 4. Also, included in Appendix 4 are examples of the application of the risk prioritisation methodology that has been used to produce the prioritisation list of potentially contaminated sites.

Assessments within this stage are made on a limited amount of often incomplete data and information and so, as more knowledge about sites is obtained, assessments will be revised and the order of prioritisation within the list may change.

Stage 2: Methodical Detailed Inspection of Prioritised Sites:

Stage 2 of the process is to undertake an appropriate, scientific and technical assessment of the circumstances of the land using all available evidence. This is likely to involve contact with owners of sites to request information about and access to the site. There is also likely to be a requirement for intrusive ground investigations and the collection and analysis of environmental samples.

The aim is to obtain sufficient information to enable the Council to determine if the land in question is statutorily contaminated land.

It must be recognised that this Stage is highly resource and time intensive for the Council. Therefore, considered in the context of financial constraints on local authorities and the current absence of central government funding or priority given to the implementation of the Part 2A Regime, it should be recognised that Stage 2 of the process is not being proactively pursued at the time of publication. 

Nonetheless the existence of the Risk Prioritisation List and the provision within this Strategy to enable the Council to carry out detailed inspections remain valuable tools in ensuring that the residents and environmental resources of the Borough are protected from harm arising from contaminated land.

The circumstances under which Stage 2 may need to be implemented are:

• Where there is evidence presented to this authority of an active pollutant linkage(s) that is causing harm to a designated receptor or pollution to controlled waters.
• Where there is the possibility of the presence of an active pollutant linkage(s) that is having an unacceptable adverse impact on the well-being of one or more residents of this Borough and where there is a political imperative to establish the significance of the pollution linkage(s) in question.

Stage 3: Deciding Whether Land is Statutorily Contaminated:

Once sufficient characterisation of the contamination risk has been finalised the Council will make a decision regarding the determination of whether the land appears to meet the definition of being contaminated land under Section 78A(2) of Part 2A of the EPA 1990. This will include identifying the basis on which the determination has been made and the pollutant linkage(s) that has given rise to the determination (Section 4).

With respect to an area of land being a potential ‘special site’ then the Council will liaise with the Environment Agency in determining whether the site appears to be ‘contaminated’. It is important to note that pursuant to Part 2A of the EPA 1990 risks should be considered only in relation to the current use of that land. Any receptors which are not likely to be present given the current use of the land, or a proposed land use that has been granted permission via the planning regime, should be disregarded.

Risks related to future use or development will be considered in accordance with any planning permissions by using contaminated land planning conditions.