Contaminated Land

1. Legislation and definition

Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 became law on the 1st of April 2000, providing for the first time a legal definition of Contaminated Land and a new regulatory regime for its identification and remediation.
The legislation defines Contaminated Land to be that which appears to the local authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition that, by reason of substances in, on or under the land that;
significant harm is being caused or there is the significant possibility of such harm being caused to specified receptors (targets), or
pollution of controlled waters is being, or is likely to be caused.

This definition reflects the intended role of the Part IIA regime, which is to enable the identification and remediation of land on which contamination is causing unacceptable risks to human health or to the wider environment. The definition does not include all land that has been impacted by chemical contamination, even though such contamination may be relevant in the context of other legislation or redevelopment works.

2. Local Authorities responsibilities

The new regime places a duty on Local Authorities to periodically inspect the land within their administrative area for evidence of ground contamination that is causing, or has the potential to cause, significant harm to environmental receptors.

The role of the Local Authorities under the new legislation are;

to cause their administrative areas to be inspected to identify Contaminated Land
to determine whether any particular site is Contaminated Land
to act as the enforcing authority for any site that is not designated as a Special Site (for which the Environment Agency is the enforcing authority).
to establish who should bear responsibility for the remediation of the land
to decide what remediation is required and to ensure that the remediation takes place
to determine who should bear the costs of remediation work
to record certain prescribed information about their regulatory actions on a Public Contaminated Land Register.

The new Regulations require each authority to prepare, adopt and publish, by July 2001, a formal written strategy for the inspection of its area setting out a rational, ordered and efficient approach to the identification of land which merits detailed individual inspection.

North Wiltshire District Council’s inspection strategy is prioritised to initially identify the most serious ground contamination problems which may pose an actual or potential risk to human health and the drinking water.

A Wiltshire Local Authority Contaminated Land Working Group exists and this strategy reflects a consistent approach agreed at this group

3. Charges for Information

Please click on the link below to view the current charge for a Contaminated Land/Environmental Information Search:

Fees and Charges

4. Contaminated Land Strategy for North Wiltshire District

Please click on the link below to view the Contaminated Land Strategy for North Wiltshire District Document:

Contaminated Land Strategy (213kb)