Contaminated Land

     

What is ‘Contaminated Land'?

In every day language, we talk about land contamination, where a particular area of land may have been polluted by current or previous uses, such as landfill sites, petrol stations, gas works, scrap yards, vehicle repair workshops or even a recent oil tank leak. There may well be contaminants left in the ground, but this doesn't mean that a particular area of land meets the strict legal definition of ‘Contaminated Land' set out in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Land Contamination and New Developments - the Planning and Development Process

Fortunately, serious harm from contamination is rare. Many contaminated sites are cleaned up during the redevelopment process, particularly as the Government has encouraged building on "brownfield sites" (previously used land). The planning process still remains the main driver for dealing with land contamination, despite the introduction of the Part IIA legislation in April 2000.

The Government has set a national target for 60% of all new housing to be built on ‘brownfield' sites. As a result, it is inevitable that land contamination will be a factor in some new developments.