Government cuts 'will lead to long term damage' for contaminated land

The Contaminated Land Network (CLN) of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is calling for urgent action to address cuts in the public funding streams to the brownfield sector, which may contribute to pollution effects 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, notes:

"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".