Investigation through Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990

In April 2000, a new set of regulations came into force for dealing with contaminated land. These regulations brought Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act into operation and were accompanied by Statutory Guidance (DETR Circular 02/2000, hereby referred to as the Guidance).

Under this Guidance, the Council has to publish an Inspection Strategy to show how it identifies land in the borough where contamination is causing unacceptable risks to human health and the wider environment. In July 2002, we published ours. The strategy also contains information on the characteristics of the borough, including its geology, hydrogeology and history.

The main objectives of the strategy are to:

• identify potentially contaminated sites
• prioritise those potential sites identified to help decide which sites should be tackled first
• inform the Environment Agency about ‘special sites'
• confirm ‘contaminated land sites’ owned by the Council
• produce a remediation strategy, confirming the actions to be taken by the Council to minimise the risks associated with the contaminated land sites
• provide information for the benefit of any public inquiries about potentially contaminated sites and respond to complaints
• set up and maintain a database to manage information obtained and held in the course of carrying out our inspection duties

Download the current strategy from 2002:

Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy - [PDF file] warning large file (file size 890Kb)