A new body has been set up by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to advise councils on whether or not land earmarked for building is contaminated, as defined in Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Government policy favours building on brownfield sites, but often this land can be contaminated. Developers must determine whether it is, and if so take remedial action.
Following publication of Defra’s revised Contaminated Land Statutory Guidance in April 2012, a National Panel of Experts has been set up to support Local Authorities in making decisions on whether land is or is not contaminated.
The Guidance sets out a legal framework for taking decisions on whether land qualifies as contaminated in the form of a four-category test. The panel’s work will be focussed on cases that are not straightforward and where there is a question mark over whether the land is considered legally contaminated or not.
The Panel’s membership is made up of contaminated land experts including Local Authorities and the Environment Agency. The panel will be chaired by Andrew Wiseman who is head of the environmental law team at the international law firm Stephenson Harwood.
