Issue - meetings

To consider the Council’s revised Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy.

The Committee received a report relating to the Council’s revised Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy.

It was RESOLVED that the publication of the Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy be approved for external consultation until 4 February 2024.

The Council’s Senior Environmental Health and Licensing Manager presented a report to the Committee relating to the Council’s revised Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy.

The Committee was advised that Section 78(B) of Part 2A of the Environmental protection Act 1990 placed a duty on local authorities to inspect their areas to identify contaminated land and conferred regulatory powers to deliver against that duty.  Published Statutory Guidance produced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set out how local authorities should meet this duty including a written strategy setting out the Council’s strategic approach which had been formally adopted and published.

The committee was advised that the purpose of the Strategy had four main tasks:

·         To establish the Council’s aims, objectives and priorities with respect to contaminated land taking into account the characteristics of the area;

·         To set out the Council’s approach to strategic inspection, the prioritisation of detailed inspection and remediation activity;

·         To describe how the statutory regime fits with the Council’s broader approach for dealing with land contamination using other legislation and voluntary remediation or as part of wider regeneration work; and

·         To elaborate on how the Council’s approach would seek to minimise unnecessary burdens on the taxpayer, businesses and individuals where it is reasonably practical to do so.

Officers advised that the change in approach focussed on how the Contaminated Land regime fits with Planning and Development Control in particular.  The new strategy appended to the officer’s report had been updated to reflect the new guidance as well as the Planning Policy Framework and following the announcement of the ending of the National Contaminated Land Grants Programme by DEFRA a replacement scheme had not been announced requiring that the scheme be altered. 

It was noted that previously some planning application sites had contaminated land and could be identified as having potential for concern.  This would be addressed through the planning process required by the National Planning Policy Framework and a much greater number of sites to be addressed than under the previous regime.

It was RESOLVED that the publication of the Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy be approved for external consultation until 4 February 2024.