Contaminated land

Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900043_en_1.htm) came into force on 1 April 2000. This legislation requires local authorities to identify contaminated land that is posing an unacceptable risk to human health or the wider environment and to secure remediation of that land.

Medway Council’s Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy 2001 (pdf 274KB) sets out how contaminated land will be identified and how sites will be prioritised.

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The prioritisation of sites will ensure that resources are concentrated on investigating areas where contaminated land is most likely to be found and allow the most pressing and serious problems to be located first. The strategy follows a prioritised approach with human health as the highest priority.

Environmental searches

Medway Council can provide environmental information on sites within the Medway area. The council makes a standard charge of £142 (inclusive of VAT) for the supply of environmental information (charges apply under the Freedom of Information Regulations or Environmental Information Regulations). Before supplying information, the council requires payment or an official order, the national grid reference and a map of the site at 1:2500 or 1:1250 scale. This should identify the site clearly and show the surrounding area to a radius of not less than 500 metres. Cheques made payable to Medway Council and the required information should be sent to the address below.

On receiving this, the Kent Landfill Atlas will be used to assess whether there are any known landfill sites within 500 metres of the site in question. Reference will also be made to the public register of processes, authorised under Part 1 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, to establish whether any processes are located in the vicinity of the site. Medway Council’s inspection strategy for contaminated land (as required by Part IIA Environmental Protection Act 1990) has been produced and the public register currently contains no entries and no determinations of contaminated land, as defined by the act, have been made. Brief details of historic land-use and any known pollution incidents or environmental concerns can be provided.

Details will normally be supplied within 10 working days of receiving an order or payment. Should you require more detailed information, please write to confirm your requirements. An estimate of the cost for providing additional information will be provided within 10 days of receiving an enquiry, together with an indication of the time within which the information can be supplied.

To report a land contamination problem to Medway Council, please use one of these two online forms:

• commercial pollution;
• domestic pollution.

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