Inspection Process
5.0 Introduction
The Council’s priorities in dealing with contaminated land will be to:
- protect human health;
- protect controlled waters;
- protect designated ecosystems;
- prevent damage to property; livestock and crops, etc.;
- prevent further contamination of land;
- encourage voluntary remediation; and
- encourage the re-use of brownfield land.
Wherever possible, the Strategy will look to achieve these priorities through voluntary remediation and the redevelopment or regeneration of sites.
Before land can be determined as contaminated by definition a significant pollutant linkage, must be identified. Unless all three elements of a pollutant linkage are identified land can not be considered contaminated (section 2.4).
No assessment should be undertaken unless both contaminants and receptors are suspected or confirmed. Where there is doubt the situation will be kept under review.
5.1 Inspection Stages
The Council has adopted a strategic approach to inspection as required by Government. This is broken down into five process steps:
Stage 1a: District Survey
The purpose of this stage of the Strategy is to gather information on potentially contaminative land uses, receptors and pathways from a variety of sources, including historical maps and records, data sets published from authoritative sources including the Environment Agency, British Geological Survey and information held on public record.
Collated information has been incorporated into the Council’s GIS. Whilst there is an ongoing need to maintain and update information for the district, this stage of the inspection process is complete.
Stage 1b: Prioritisation of sites for detailed inspection
There is a statutory requirement for a risk-based approach in prioritising sites with the greatest potential to cause significant harm, although a methodology to achieve this has not been defined by Government. As a result, the Council used the software Contaminated Site Evaluation and Prioritisation Tool (ConSEPT), developed by the British Geological Survey specifically designed to help Local Authorities meet the requirements of Part 2A. It allows scoring of sources, pathways and receptors for each potentially contaminated site to establish a site prioritisation graded from ‘A’ to ‘E’, with grade ‘A’ sites having the highest priority in need of immediate investigation.
Stage 2: Site Walkover and Inspection of the site
During the initial site prioritisation some site visits may have taken place. However, it is only following the collation of a desk study that a targeted site walkover can be conducted, considering all previously identified sources, pathways and receptors. It may be necessary at this stage to inform the site owner, if known, that the site has been prioritised for inspection.
Stage 3: Intrusive Investigations
The requirement for intrusive investigation will be determined based upon the Site Characterisation and risk assessment carried out in the previous stages. The Council may engage consultants to undertake the analysis of this data and preparation of the scope of investigation and a site investigation protocol.
A desk-based study may be sufficient to quantify the level of risk, or it may be necessary to undertake an intrusive investigation to assess ground conditions and associated contaminant concentrations. The output from this inspection stage should provide sufficient information to categorise the site as required by statutory guidance.
Stage 4: Determination
The local authority is responsible for determining whether land is contaminated land and has a duty to do so where:
- Significant harm is being caused to a human or relevant non-human receptor;
- There is a significant possibility of significant harm being caused to a human or relevant non-human receptor;
- Significant pollution of controlled waters is being caused; or
- There is a significant possibility of significant pollution of controlled waters being caused.
In fulfilling this role, the Council will act in accordance with relevant statutory guidance, seeking expert advice, if required.
For sites that are determined as contaminated land, following a thorough risk assessment, the Council will produce a risk summary, in a simple and easy to understand format, and this will form part of the record.
Stage 5: Remediation
When land is determined as contaminated land, the local authority must secure the remediation of that land. The Statutory Guidance will be followed to ensure the significant pollutant linkages identified by the inspection process are removed or disrupted to such a level that they no longer present a significant risk.
Further information including a detailed outline of the processes to be completed in each stage is provided in the following sections.
5.2 Inspection Programme
The legislation and statutory guidance are not prescriptive in terms of how quickly the work on contaminated land needs to be completed, however, each local authority is required to set out in its Strategy the timescales for the inspection process. Table 1 sets out the anticipated timetable for completion of each stage of the inspection process.
| Stage | Progress |
|---|---|
| 1a District Survey | Completed |
| 1b Prioritisation | Completed |
| 2 Detailed Inspection | As required |
| 3 Determination | As required following detailed inspection |
| 4 Remediation | Within 12 months of determination |
Prioritisation is reviewed and updated from time to time as new information arises.
5.3 Reactive investigation
If the Council is made aware of any site not already listed on the database of potentially contaminated land that has the potential to be contaminated land under the Part 2A definition, then a process of investigation will be carried out in the same way as those sites already on the Council’s database of potentially contaminated land. The site would be subjected to the same process of prioritisation as sites already listed. If the risk-based assessment of the site, based on available information, indicates urgent action should be taken, a detailed inspection would follow.
If the status of a known site should change, as in the case of the introduction of a new receptor for whatever reasons, then the site would be reassessed in terms of risk to those receptors. If it seems to the Council that the risks now posed by the site are such that a detailed inspection should be carried out by the Council, then this will be done with due regard to current best practice and published guidance.
5.4 Information Requests and the Public Register
The Council receives a steady flow of requests for information on contaminated land from consultants undertaking environmental assessments to property vendors and purchasers and their solicitors. It is important, therefore, to maintain the database of sites so that responses can be made to these queries based on up to date information.
The Council is required under Section 78R of Part 2A to maintain a register containing prescribed particulars of actions taken by the Council in relation to the determination of contaminated land.
The register can be viewed on the Council's Contaminated land webpage. There are currently no entries on the Council’s public register.
5.5 Strategy Review
This Strategy will be reviewed in 5 years unless changes in legislation, statutory guidance or other factors dictate that the Strategy should be reviewed at an earlier date.