Contaminated Land

Land Quality & Historical Contaminated Land

The legacy of the Industrial Revolution and beyond has left many parts of the United Kingdom with a substantial amount of substances left in the ground with a potential to cause harm to human health, water courses, the built environment and ecosystems. Examples of industrial processes, which may leave harmful residues, include landfill sites, tanneries, old railway lines and former gas works sites.

In 2001 Charnwood Borough Council along with all other local authorities were required to produce a Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy. As well as aiming to protect the environment, our Strategy encourages the remediation (clean up) of polluted sites and the re-use and development of brown-field land rather than building on greenfield sites.   

If you are a landowner, developer or have submitted an application regarding developing land within the District we have produced a leaflet (Building on Contaminated Land, available on request) to guide you through the process of identifying and dealing with contamination on your land.

The Environment Act 1995 places a duty on Local Authorities to carry out an inspection survey of all the land within its boundary to determine whether the land is contaminated. A key feature of this new contaminated land regime is that there must be a pathway (e.g. land, air, water) which could link a pollutant (e.g. arsenic) with a receptor (e.g. ecosystem, human, built environment, ecosystem) in order to classify the land as contaminated.

Our strategy sets out a systematic approach to investigation of the Borough to ensure that the sites which pose the highest risk are addressed first. If any sites are found to be contaminated the Council will specify remedial measures appropriate to the level of risk.

Current Position

Our original assessment of the Borough identified over 3000 sites that could have become polluted because of previous industrial use. By 2003 we had identified 141 of these that we considered to be the most likely to have been polluted and to be in locations that are most likely to pose a threat to human health.

Since then we have been progressively investigating these sites to get a better understanding of the risks associated with each and to establish if we need to carry out intrusive site investigations.

As of April 2007 we had determined that 114 of these were not contaminated and we had therefore decided to discontinue investigating them. The remaining 27 are as yet undetermined and are being inspected on a highest risk first basis. Based on the evidence we have obtained to date we do not currently consider that there is a high likelihood that these sites are contaminated under the terms of Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act. However, we have not yet completed a full appraisal of them and we intend to make further enquiries before either declaring them as not contaminated or considering the need for intrusive site sampling.

Land Quality Enquiries

During a house sale, solicitors will often carry out an environmental search. If the site has previously been used for anything that may have been likely to generate pollution then this is usually highlighted. Unless the seller has clear evidence to demonstrate that the site is not contaminated with pollution this can seriously compromise a sale.

The information we have collected can be of value in clarifying the risk during a house sale.

• All the 3000 plus sites we have mapped can be seen on line on our interactive maps. Click 'general maps' then find for the address you are interested in. Then by clicking on the 'Previous Industrial Land' option you will be able to see all of the land that we have considered as part of our investigations.

• Copies of the investigation reports into the 141 priority sites are available for £58 (2007/08 price) from the Council. We can also provide quotes for bespoke reports about individual sites on request

Public Register

Any sites that are considered to be contaminated by either ourselves or the Environment Agency may be the subject of a Remediation Notice, namely a legal notice that states what must be done to clean it up. All Remediation Notices that are served must be kept on a public register.
The Council does not (and is not required to) have a register of land which may be contaminated, or land which has pollutants on it or land which has had a past industrial usage.

The Public Registeris currently empty.

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