Contaminated land

West Lindsey District Council is committed to ensuring that contaminated land present in the district is identified and dealt with in the most practical and efficient way, and to ensure that the most pressing and serious problems are addressed first. Our priorities are to protect public health, important ecological sites and the water and built environments.

West Lindsey Contaminated Land Strategy has recently been reviewed, the document has been approved by the Regulatory Committee on Tuesday 10 December 2019.

Contaminated Land is defined in section 78A(2) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as: ‘Land which appears to the local authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land, that - (a) significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or (b) pollution of controlled waters is being, or is likely to be, caused.’

At the present time, West Lindsey District Council is currently assessing, identifying, and prioritising, sites across the district in order to determine if these sites meet the statutory definition of contaminated land, and the timescales/priorities for investigation under Part 2A. The Environmental Protection team also works closely with other regulatory bodies to ensure that historically contaminated land is cleaned up in such a way that it is safe, suitable for its end use, and does not present a risk to health or the environment as a whole.

In addition, the team works closely with the Planning department in ensuring that new development on potentially contaminated land does not give rise to any significant risks to the future occupiers and users of that site. Further guidance and information is available in the downloads.

Charging for Environmental Information Regulation requests

Under The Environmental Information Regulations 2004, Part 2 Regulation 8(1) for certain requests we are allowed to request that a minimum charge of £78.00* is paid for providing the information requested.  Advance payment is required and the information will be provided no later than 20 days after payment.

*Charge amount valid from 01 April 2022 until 31 March 2023
    
Each request will be assessed to see if the information requested exceeds the chargeable threshold.  This threshold is based upon the approximated time taken to locate, retrieve, extract and summarise the information required.  This charge also covers any disbursement costs.
   
If after 60 days no payment is received the request will closed.

Special Sites

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 creates a particular category of contaminated land called ‘Special Sites’. For any special site, the Environment Agency is the enforcing authority for the purposes of the contaminated land regime. Examples of special sites include:

  • waste acid tar lagoons
  • oil refining
  • explosives
  • nuclear sites

The designation of a special site cannot take place until the land in question has been formally identified as contaminated land be the Local Authority. However, the government considers it appropriate for detailed investigation of any potential special site to be carried out by the Environment Agency.

Historical Landfill Sites

The information held regarding historical landfill sites within in the West Lindsey area is available as a pdf on the download tab. Please be aware that Lincolnshire County Council is the responsible local authority for managing landfill sites so requests for further information should be directed to Lincolnshire County Council.

Related Links

West Lindsey District Council is not responsible for the content of external weblinks.

Downloads

Radon

Radon is a natural radioactive gas, you can’t see smell or taste it. In outside air the levels are low but it can accumulate inside buildings.