The felling impressed on me is that some developers view their consultant's reports as something to be handed straight to the LA in order to appease them, rather than a document containing recommendations being made to the developer, and therefore they do not get read properly by the developer. Perhaps the issue is that some developers and/or contractors do not fully understand what they are reading.
I find that the 1 paragraph "validation" reports are a regular issue.
I had a "validation" report recently for a development comprising around 30-40 dwellings with gardens on the site of an old landfill (with measurements of CO2 up to 12.2%), which consisted of a short letter from the membrane supplier. Building Control inspection records made at the foundation stage seemed to suggest that 1 phase of the development (consisting of around 10 of the properties) had been constructed without a membrane being installed. These properties were in the location of the gas monitor which recorded the highest CO2. The properties are now occupied, and so the developer was quite keen to have the condition discharged, but was only able to provide the aforementioned letter and NHBC warranty certificates (which did not include any reference or record of inspection).
More commonly, I receive letters from soil suppliers stating that Xmm of clean soil has been emplaced on a site, however this is much easier to go back and validate properly than gas protection.
Kind regards,
Thomas Brown
Senior Environmental Health Technical Officer
Environmental Protection
Public Safety, Regulation and Development
Newcastle City Council
• Website
http://www.newcastle.gov.uk
Civic Centre
• Phone
0191 211 5879
7th Floor
Ext 25879
Barras Bridge
• Fax
0191 277 7166
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
• e-mail
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Contaminated Land Management Discussion List <CONTAMINATED-
> [log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Phil Mason
> Sent: 14 March 2019 10:32
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Ground gases - a question [Scanned]
>
> As I sit here batting back an acoustic site completion report which is in the form of
> an unsigned letter saying “I can confirm that the noise mitigation measures have
> been completed in accordance with the agreements made with Urban Vision
> under Condition 10.” I take comfort in the number of people willing to be robust
> and challenge developers on these matters.
>
> Also interesting to hear the views about not only local authority resource shortages
> but issues in the construction industry that compound the problem.
>
> I expect the majority of consultants share the frustration when they are asked to
> provide a validation report knowing they will be unable to provide appropriate
> evidence. Whenever I send a report back I am almost certainly not blaming the
> consultant, as it's rarely their fault!
>
> I tend to think of it in the long term though, and I wouldn't want my name to be
> found on a memo recommending a validation condition is discharged when
> they're investigating another Loscoe.
>
>
> Phil Mason MSc, PGDip Acoustics, MIEnvSc, MIAQM, MCIEH Environmental
> Consultant (Air Quality, Noise, Contaminated Land) – Infrastructure Urban Vision
> Partnership Ltd
>
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