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The Cost of Unforseen Contaminated Land Problems

There is a lot at stake if you don’t have a Contaminated Land Assessment that identifies the risk to your site…
Our Contaminated Land Assessments will help you clarify your site’s prospects, so you know the risk and can make even better decisions.

Consultants Committed to Creating Safe and Compliant Places to Live and Work

Your specialist Contaminated Land Consultant is part of a dedicated team of Chartered professionals who have been successfully gaining regulatory approval for clients all over the UK, ensuring that their sites are safe and compliant places to live and work.

Our Contaminated Land Assessments and Site Investigations are expertly prepared by experienced consultants who are committed to providing you with technically robust reports that are tailored to meet your plans for the site.

  • Tick Icon Reduce your risk, by gaining valuable insights
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  • Tick Icon 98% sign off success rate, very satisfied regulators

Meet Your Consultant

Contaminated Land Assessment

Our Consultants can review your site and guide you through the complex process of undertaking a Contaminated Land Assessment, so you can get your site approved and built.

They are ready to get started.

Get Your Contaminated Land Assessment

1

Get Proposal

Answer a few questions, so together we can come up with a plan that fits your timescales and budget.

2

Contaminated Land Assessment

We work through the complex process of evaluating and assessing the contaminated land risks of the site.

3

Receive Report

Written so you understand the contamination risk, tailored so you know what action to take to ensure a safe and compliant site.

Could You Require A Contaminated Land Assessment?

A Contaminated Land Assessment could be required if you have a site that is causing pollution or could potentially be at risk of causing pollution if it was to undergo redevelopment.

This may be due to historical uses of the site, or its location near to an area known to have land contamination issues.

The purpose of a Contaminated Land Assessment is to identify the potential sources of contamination that could be present, evaluate the risks the sources may pose to sensitive receptor(s), such as people living in a new housing development and provide mitigation measures to reduce or eliminate the risk.

Contaminated Land Assessment

Many clients and their agents often require a Desk Study and/ or Site Investigation to support a planning application, discharge planning conditions or as part of a commercial property transaction and sale, to investigate any potential environmental liabilities. 

In the UK, the contaminated land regime is enforced by environmental regulators such the Environment Agency and local Contaminated Land Officers who apply the risk-based “source-pathway-target pollution linkage” concept when assessing the risk to sensitive receptors posed by a contaminated site.

As an example, a source may be soil or groundwater contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, the pathway being vapours entering a building or direct contact, and the target being residential occupiers living in a new house above the area of contamination.

The purpose of a Contaminated Land Assessment is to evaluate the potential for a pollution linkage to be present. If a pollution linkage is established, then an assessment should consider the level of risk and whether any further works or actions are required to clarify, manage or mitigate the risk, often by some form of land remediation. It should always be noted that for a potential liability to arise, each stage of the pollution linkage must be present, so if there is no pollution linkage or if the linkage can be broken, then there is no risk.

The contaminated land regime generally follows a phased risk-based approach and is applied to new development sites going through planning, to sites being investigated due to a pollution incident. Principally, there are four phases or stages to a Contaminated Land Assessment:

The majority of clients encounter the need for a Contaminated Land Assessment as part of a planning application or to discharge conditions following planning permission being granted for a new development. These are often conditions imposed by a local planning authority, the Environment Agency and National House Building Council (NHBC).

Many clients and their agents often require a contaminated land assessment or site investigation as part of a commercial property transaction and sale, to investigate any potential environmental liabilities.

A site investigation may also be required by consulting engineers and design and build contractors for design purposes and a land quality check, or a regulatory authority may require a Contaminated Land Assessment to investigate a potential or on-going pollution issue (such as a site being investigated under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990).

In order to meet your needs and ensure compliance, all stages of our Contaminated Land Assessments from Phase 1 desk studies through to remediation verification are in keeping with the requirements of local planning procedures, best practice and planning guidance.

These in include guidance such as that set out in the new the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which advises regulatory consultees to ensure that adequate site investigation information is provided at the initial planning stage. The Environment Agency’s Model Procedures for the Management of Land Contamination (CLR11) and GPLC EA documents which sets out the recommended phased risk-based approach when dealing with land affected by contamination.

Lustre Consulting has gained extensive experience carrying out each stage of a phased Contaminated Land Assessment on a variety of sites ranging from small developments with less than five units, through to large scale strategic housing developments covering many hectares, and commercial and industrial developments. We have a track record of successfully supporting planning applications, removing objections and discharging conditions, and our reports regularly receive positive feedback from many planning authorities and environmental regulators.

These are some frequently asked questions when commissioning Contaminated Land Assessment:

Do I need a Contaminated Land Assessment?
Do you have any planning conditions attached to your planning permission? If so the conditions may have details which require a Contaminated Land Assessment.

What if I already have a ‘Site Check’ document as part of the sale/purchase of my property?
Be wary of very cheap desk studies. The danger of a cheap desk study is that they are usually computer generated. This means there is the increased potential for oversights, no site walkover (which is more often than not essential), no conceptual model or risk assessment and non-compliant reports. Our Contaminated Land Assessments are written by qualified consultants who can expertly assess the risks for your site.

How long will it take to prepare a Contaminated Land Assessment?
A Phase 1 Desk Study will normally take up to 2 weeks to complete subject to gaining access to conduct a site walkover and Phase 2 Site Investigation 6 to 8 weeks subject to the post-environmental monitoring programme and regulatory requirements.

How can I be sure I need a Contaminated Land Assessment?
If you are unsure as to whether you require a Contaminated Land Assessment, please give us a call, so together we can discuss your requirements. Alternatively, please send an email to info@lustreconsulting.com and provide us with the site location and description of the proposed development, so our consultants can get in touch.

Sites Successfully Approved and Built

A former petrol filling station and vehicle servicing garage site in Kent is in the process of being redeveloped into a residential use. Lustre Consulting was initially appointed to carry out a Phase 1 Desk Study in support of a planning application. This was followed by a Phase 2 Site Investigation including a Geotechnical Investigation. […]

A former petrol filling station and vehicle servicing garage...

A former large scale fuel storage and distribution depot is in the process of being redeveloped into a commercial development. The depot, located within a chalk quarry, was decommissioned around 15 years ago with all associated infrastructure removed. Prior to Lustre Consulting’s involvement several investigations, dating back over a decade, had been conducted. The investigations […]

A former large scale fuel storage and distribution depot is in...

A former timber yard located off North Street, Barking received planning permission for redevelopment into residential use including houses with private gardens, apartment blocks and communal amenity space (including a children’s playground). Lustre Consulting was appointed to undertake a Phase 2 Site Investigation to work towards discharging a planning condition.  The investigation comprised window sample […]

A former timber yard located off North Street, Barking received...

This site was granted planning permission by the Secretary of State for the development of 350 100% affordable low rise houses and apartments. The site comprises approximately 24ha of open space, bisected by a former sand pit and pond. Site investigations undertaken since the 1990s found the pond (1ha in area and up to 4m […]

This site was granted planning permission by the Secretary of...

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