Contaminated land is a legacy that we have, in the main, inherited from our industrial past. In extreme cases contaminated land may be a threat to health, controlled waters and/or the wider environment.
The Government has introduced a new law, Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, that is intended to help Local Authorities deal with the most serious threats posed by polluted land in their areas. For some of the more difficult industrial sites and for certain cases of water pollution, the Environment Agency takes over responsibility from the Council. The new law complements existing controls over contaminated land that are available through the planning process and pollution prevention legislation.
The new law places requirements on the Council as to how it will go about the new task. The first of those requirements was that the Council must write and publish a strategy that sets out how it will carry out the task of finding any land in the district that needs to be dealt with under the new law. Huntingdonshire District Council adopted its Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy in June 2001. You can download the Inspection Strategy from the box on the right.
The new law has its own particular definition of what is to be considered 'Contaminated Land'. This new definition means that not all land that has been polluted will become 'contaminated land', only that which poses a significant threat to health, controlled waters and/or the wider environment.
It is the Government's intention that the original polluter, or polluters, of land will pay for the cost of dealing with the contamination that they have left behind. If the polluter cannot be found, the cost may have to be met by the present landowner or occupier. Where contaminated land is identified, the Council must act to make the land 'safe' for its present use. The law contains legal powers to ensure that this work is carried out. Where there is a proposed change of use of land, contamination is dealt with under the planning and development control regime. In some cases, the Council itself may have been the polluter of land or may be the owner of contaminated land. Where this is the case the Council will be responsible for dealing with the problem.
Information regarding regulatory activity that has been taken on land that has been determined to be 'contaminated land' will be placed on a public register. The public register is available for inspection, during normal office hours at Huntingdonshire District Council Offices, Pathfinder House, St Mary's Street, Huntingdon.