Contaminated land strategy

Local Authorities are required under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to develop a Contaminated Land Strategy by the 1st July 2001. The Strategy is to describe how the Local Authority will deal with contaminated land within its Borough.

We started to proactively identify and deal with contaminated land within its area in the late 1990s and this Strategy aims to build on this previous work, as well as outlining what the Council aims to achieve in the future. The action plan describes each major step the Local Authority will take in dealing with its responsibilities as law enforcer and owner of land, and it’s joint working with other agencies, especially the Environment Agency. The action plan covers the period 2001 to 2005.

The aims of our Strategy are:

To guide the Council’s implementation of the new legal duties relating to contaminated land
To set a strategic framework which will ensure that land in the Council’s area is inspected in a ordered, rational, efficient way based on risk assessment
To prevent, so far as is practicable, unacceptable risks from past, present or future contamination
To ensure effective communication in relation to contaminated land with all relevant stakeholders, including the residents of the district, the business community, and other statutory and non-statutory agencies

The Council’s priorities in dealing with contaminated land will be:

To protect human health
To protect controlled waters
To protect designated ecosystems
To prevent damage to property
To prevent any further contamination of land
To encourage voluntary remediation
To encourage re-use of brownfield land

This strategy was approved at the meeting of our Environmental Services Committee on Monday 2nd July.