GOVERNMENT CUTS WILL LEAD TO LONG TERM DAMAGE FOR CONTAMINATED LAND
CIWEM's Contaminated Land Network (CLN) is calling for
urgent action to address cuts in the public funding streams to the
brownfield sector, which may contribute to pollution and ongoing
damage to property and the environment.
Government budget cuts are already having major impacts both on
Local Authorities and the Environment Agency, in terms of a lack of
manpower to address contaminated land issues. Some geographic
regions no longer have any dedicated experts dealing with
contaminated land issues and, at a time when the government is keen
to stimulate development to keep us out of recession, it is
considered that the current situation could end up with little
scrutiny of development plans.
It is possible that we could see a repeat of the recent Corby
case, which was heard at the High Court in 2009. The Corby Borough
Council (CBC) was found to be liable for public nuisance and in
breach of its duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act
1990 during the reclamation of a steelworks between 1983 and
1997.
One of the key criticisms of how CBC handled the remediation was
that they did not use adequately trained and qualified staff to
design, manage and supervise the works on behalf of the Council.
Greater emphasis should be given to using companies who employ
chartered professionals, such as CIWEM members, many of whom have
experience of the issues associated with contaminated land and in
particular dealing with seriously contaminated sites. Such
chartered professionals should ideally hold SiLC (Specialist in
Land Condition) accreditation, which encompasses brownfield
development in all its aspects.
The government is also replacing Planning Policy Statements and
their associated helpful guidance within a single statement, which
is tantamount to relaxing planning legislation; it is considered
that this may lead to a dangerous scenario of a reduction in the
scrutiny of proposed development and the potential for increased
pollution, lower standards, damage to property and the environment,
and inconsistency in standards and approach.
Gary Winder, chair of CIWEM's Contaminated Land Network of 400
leading sector professionals, said: 'If the government keeps
cutting guidance and regulation and at the same time reduces the
amount of support from contaminated land specialists in the public
sector, we have the potential to create some disastrous schemes
that lead to polluted and damaged land, which may end up in high
profile court cases. We strongly urge the government to rethink the
economic cuts that impact on brownfield redevelopment and to ensure
that there is sufficient legislation and guidance in place to
protect against a massive potential increase in inappropriate and
unregulated redevelopments in the UK.'
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