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The Environmental Protection Act, 1990, Part 11A, requires that all local authorities inspect their areas for the purpose of identifying contaminated land. Stratford-on-Avon District Council adopted a strategy in 2001 setting out how it would undertake this task and in what timescale.
There are four possible grounds that determine if land is contaminated:
- Significant harm is being caused;
- there is significant possibility of significant harm being caused;
- pollution of controlled waters is being caused;
- pollution of controlled waters is likely to be caused.
Land may only be determined as 'contaminated' if:
- it contains a source of contamination - the source; and
- someone (or something) could be affected by the contamination - the receptor; and
- the contamination can get to the receptor - the pathway.
These three elements together are known as the pollutant linkage. Some typical uses of land in our area with potential for causing contamination are:
Landfills
Gasworks
Filling Stations
Scrap yards
Agriculture - storage and use of chemicals
Industry
Update
Stratford-on-Avon District Council has recently taken the decision to downgrade its approach to contaminated land. This decision was taken in light of both the 2007 Rogers Review and the subsequent Audit Commission decision to remove the requirement for investigation of potentially contaminated land from the government's national indicator system.
The Rogers Review was a carried out in 2007 to set the national enforcement priorities for local authorities, amongst its many recommendations was that investigating potentially contaminated land was not a national consideration.
The Council will continue to:
- recommend full site investigation as appropriate at planning application stage for new development,
- provide advice on request
- respond to specific enquiries about sites following receipt of the appropriate fee.
However, the Council will not, in the foreseeable future carry out any proactive site investigations.
This statement will be reviewed in June 2013.
Certain information relating to regulatory action and remediation, if any, must be kept on a public register.
Please click on the link on the right to view our Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy.
Contaminated Land Reports are available to purchase for a fee of £70.00, inclusive of VAT.
For further information on these controls or to purchase a report please contact the Environmental Health Team on 01789 267575, or by email at envhealth@stratford-dc.gov.uk
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