Agenda item

(Environment Portfolio Holder) To consider the attached report (C-025-2016/17).

(1)        That, subject to staff resources, capacity and competing priorities, one potentially contaminated land site be investigated every two years;

(2)       That a growth bid of  £100,000 be made from the District Development Fund to cover the two year period from April 2017, to carry out the required investigations; and

(3)        That a further report be submitted to the Cabinet in December 2018, as part of the budget setting process for 2019/20, to agree future budget allocation to investigate potentially contaminated land sites within the District.

The Environment Portfolio Holder presented a report on a programme of inspection and budget allocation for contaminated land within the District.

The Portfolio Holder stated that the Council had carried out four major investigations to date, three on former landfill sites and an emergency investigation on a former gas works site. It was now necessary to review and formalise the inspection regime and allocation of budget for these investigations. Given the significant cost associated with such investigations and the number of sites that the Council had to investigate, it was proposed that the Council aimed to investigate one site every two years. Although, it was highlighted that there might be circumstances where this could not be achieved.

The Portfolio Holder reported that there was an existing Continuing Services Budget (CSB) allocation which had been used to cover the contaminated land, pollution and water quality work; however, this had been insufficient to cover the cost of one contaminated land investigation. As each potential contaminated land site could be considered as a separate project, it was felt to be more appropriate to fund these investigations from the District Development Fund (DDF). This would allow greater flexibility between financial years as determined by each site under investigation, and approval was sought to allocate £50,000 per annum for the next two years from April 2017 from the DDF. It was also intended to review the budget allocation with a further report to the Cabinet in September 2019.

In response to questions from the Members present, the Portfolio Holder reiterated that the Council had a statutory responsibility to investigate potentially contaminated land sites, and would endeavour to recover the costs of such investigations wherever possible. The Assistant Director of Neighbourhoods (Technical Services) added that Officers had a list of potentially contaminated sites which had been risk assessed, and some investigation work had been performed for some of the sites. The legal advice had been to not publish the Council’s list of potentially contaminated sites.

The Finance Portfolio Holder, Cllr Mohindra, requested that the second recommendation be amended to request £100,000 in total for two years from the DDF from April 2017, and this was agreed. Cllr Philip also requested that the further report be received by the Cabinet during the budget setting process for 2019/20. It was agreed that this could be done but it was emphasised that the Council would only have investigated one site by December 2018.

Decision:

(1)        That, subject to staff resources, capacity and competing priorities, one potentially contaminated land site be investigated every two years;

(2)       That a growth bid of  £100,000 be made from the District Development Fund to cover the two year period from April 2017, to carry out the required investigations; and

(3)        That a further report be submitted to the Cabinet in December 2018, as part of the budget setting process for 2019/20, to agree future budget allocation to investigate potentially contaminated land sites within the District.

Reasons for Decision:

The Council was obliged to investigate potentially contaminated land sites within the District, as required by the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Part IIA and in line with the Council’s Contaminated Land Strategy.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

To not carry out any site investigations; however, this would contravene the Council’s obligations under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Part IIA and the Council’s Contaminated Land Strategy.

To reduce or increase the frequency of site investigations; however, this would require more or less further resources to be allocated as appropriate.