Malcolm Dowden investigates local authority written statements & contaminated land
In the article “The Last Resort” (NLJ, 25 May 2012, p 710), Hayley Tam explained the key points in the April 2012 revision of the statutory guidance on contaminated land, commenting that they were unlikely to have a major impact on transactional lawyers. This article highlights an exception to that broadly correct view: the express requirement for local authorities to issue a written statement that a site is not considered, for the purposes of Environmental Protection Act 1990, Pt 2A, to be “contaminated land”.
As the previous article explained, Pt 2A is a regime of last resort. Clean-up or remediation of historic pollution is much more likely to be addressed voluntarily or through planning conditions in the context of redevelopment. Part 2A bites where there is no immediate prospect of remediation through those routes, and where the local authority has identified a specific, high-risk problem. It is not enough for the enforcing authority to find that land contains contaminating substances.
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