What is Contaminated Land?

Land could be contaminated as a result of industrial work. This contamination may cause a risk to people’s health or the environment (although serious harm is rare)

These sites will probably have been cleaned up when they were redeveloped. However, this is not always the case, especially when the sites were redeveloped some time ago.

Under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which came into force on 1st April 2000, local authorities must inspect their area to check for contaminated land which may cause possible risks to people’s health or the environment.

Rochford council produced a Contaminated land strategy in 2003 (which you can view in the related links below) this clearly states how potential contaminated land in our district will be indentified, and investigated.

The Environmental protection unit is responsible for carrying out the duties under the contaminated land strategy as well as advising on site investigation and remediation reports submitted though the planning and building control process.

The council is also required to hold a register of all regulatory action taken regarding contaminated land. No Contaminated land has currently been identified by Rochford District Council, so there is no register in place at the moment.

How does this affect me?

Builders and Developers

If you are a builder or developer you may want to visit out technical advice page for builders and developers from the left hand menu, which provides information about legislation, new developments, building and planning process involving contaminated land.

Moving House buying or selling a property

Before you buy a property you should have an Environmental search in order to find out if a property is likely to be affected by contamination

Solicitors and conveyancers normally carry out these searches on your behalf, for example an Envirosearch or Homecheck report.

If potential contaminated land is identified in the search, further enquires are normally made to us. These are called Environmental Information Requests. For more information about Environmental Information Requests please visit our ‘Buying and Selling a Property – Environmental Information Contaminated Land' from the menu on the left hand side

Domestic Central Heating Oil and contamination

Over recent years there has been an increase in the number of pollution incidents caused by poorly maintained domestic central heating oil tanks. In some circumstances’ drinking water supplies have been contaminated, and people have had to leave their homes because oil in the ground has produced fumes that have made it impossible to live in the properties. The cost of cleaning up after a leak or spill can be extremely expensive and often run into thousands of pounds.

The Essex Contaminated Land Consortium have produced a booklet which provides advice on how to prevent oil spills, and what to do if one does happen. You can view or download this in the related documents section below. If you have any further questions about Contaminated land you can contact us by telephoning our Customer Services team on 01702 318111, or e-mailing customerservices@rochford.gov.uk