Having read the contributions from Pete Hill, Adrian Beeching,
Thomas Russell and most recently John Patrick I am now
fascinated by the situation we face in England and Wales.
The LA as a public servant should indeed be trusted or else we
have few moral standards left in our society. Quite clearly funding
and thus resourcing is the issue and some LA's have not perhaps
been as forward as others with respect to commencing
Contaminated Land inspections (possibly due to the torturous route
leading to implementation of the Statutory Guidance?).
Nevertheless the 15 month period from 1st April was (and is) the
first stage towards a knowledge base of 'actual' Contaminated Land
designations across the EC. It would be totally unrealistic to
expect clean-up funding to be made available within a short period
of time, and the EC should respond following this first stage.
The greatest interest of my own is that to serve the local
community in the late 1980's and early 1990's some LA's took
possession of land for small sums of money (commonly for £1).
This land is easy to identify but may require significant funding to
remediate. The LA concerned will have little difficulty in designating
such sites as "contaminated land" if appropriate pollutant linkages
are identified with significant risks.
I am waiting to see the results of these initial surveys (30th June
this year!!??) so that the scale of any 'problems' can at last be
assessed. I imagine that the UK Government will then have a role
in setting funding objectives and timescales since the LA's will not
have enough resources, and at that point may involve Consultants
(or other LA's with a surplus of resources?) to supervise appropriate
remediation measures.
I again reaffirm my own support and indeed express some views of
sympathy towards the position of over-stretched LA's in the
majority. I am also guessing when I expect LA's not to have
completed their initial surveys by 30th June 2001 but would like to
hear views from LA's about this point.
I hope that these comments might extend this very interesting
debate still further.
Regards,
Paul McMahon
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Dr. Paul H. McMahon
Civil Engineering
School of Aeronautical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Environment
Room LG9, Newton Building
University of Salford
Tel. 0161 295 3458 (Direct Line with Voicemail Facility)
Fax. 0161 295 5060
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