News & Articles

New measures to recover from the pandemic and help provide much-needed new homes have been set out recently by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

Under the proposals, cities will be encouraged to plan for more family homes – which are the right size and type for families to live in – and to make the most of vacant buildings and underused land to protect green spaces. 

Using brownfield sites clearly makes sense on many levels but does it stack up financially. We cannot provide cost advice but what we do know is that contamination and remediation can have a dramatic impact on costs. Contamination is not a separate issue to be considered later, cost effective remediation could impact site levels, drainage strategy and site layout. Getting early advice is crucial if remediation costs are to be minimised.

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A developer is now able to give planning authorities “Prior Notification” of certain changes of use rather than applying for full planning permission. These changes of use include:
 Change of use of a building from business to residential
 Change of use of a building to a school
 Change of use from an agricultural building to another use

The process requires a developer to make an application to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether prior approval will be required as to the transport and highway impacts, flooding risk and contamination risk. This application must be made before beginning a development and the application should consist of the developer’s
details and a plan showing the proposed development. Further information is only required if the local planning authority consider it necessary to assess the transport impact, flood or contamination risk. If there is no risk identified, prior approval is not required and the development can take place without further permission from the local planning authority.

We have considerable experience of preparing contaminated land desktop reports and flood risk assessments for these types of projects. If you would like some advice on a project call me, Peter George on 07765 232995.

This timely document is entitled Before You Dig, Garages & Petrol Stations, Guidance for Developers, EPUK. David Rudland et al.

EPUK say “This guide has been produced now because we anticipate alternative fuels will make many of the 8500 retail forecourts in the UK surplus over the next 5-10 years or so. Repurposing this kind of brownfield site presents particular challenges of the sort that drive some developers to seek greenfield sites instead.

The guide describes how petrol stations were constructed, operated, and decommissioned, outlining particular issues around decontamination and signposting towards further guidance. Tips for good practice and case studies appear throughout.“

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Establishing a Nature Volunteer Force (Citizens’ Army) to monitor invasive species is one of a number of recommendations the Government is exploring following the report by the Environmental Audit Committee on Invasive Species.

Last year, the Committee published its report on invasive species, finding that they cost the UK economy £1.8 billion a year through damage done to natural biodiversity, disease transmission and other harmful environmental effects. It was clear that urgent action is needed to slow the rate of arrival of invasive species, and concerns were raised it is not being given the same priority and funding as animal and plant health.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has recognised the need for greater resources to tackle the issue in its response.

Establishing a Nature Volunteer Force to track invasive species was one of the main recommendations of the Committee, and the Government has confirmed it will monitor a similar approach underway in New Zealand. It has estimated the cost to support Local Action Groups in the UK could be around £340,000.

The Government has also accepted the Committee’s recommendations to explore creating a separate inspectorate and to boost public awareness by updating the Be Plant Wise campaign. It suggested public goods payments under the Agriculture Bill could contribute to efforts to counter established invasive species.

Environmental Audit Committee Chairman, Philip Dunne, said:

“The UK is spending an enormous £1.8 billion a year responding to the impact of invasive species, and more preventative action must be taken to protect our environment and the economy.

“From a Nature Volunteer Force to track invasive species, to introducing an inspectorate and boosting awareness amongst the general public – these are all steps recommended by the Committee that could make a significant difference, and it is promising the Government is considering them.

“We will continue to monitor progress of the Government in this area to ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect our crops, forests and wider biodiversity from harmful invasive species.”

Further recommendations by the Committee and the Government response is as follows:

• The EAC called for funding to be increased to £3million a year to support the secretariat. The Government has recognised “the need for significantly greater resources” and said this will be considered as part of departmental business planning and future government spending reviews, including Spending Review 2020.
• Since 2014 the EAC has called for the Government to ratify the Ballast Water Management Convention, which aims to limit the arrival of invasive species from the shipping industry. The Government has said it expects to ascend by summer 2020. The Committee will monitor that this has taken place.
• The Committee had highlighted the lack of trade restrictions on plants which carry Xylella and Oak Processionary Moth which have allowed outbreaks to occur. New trade controls were announced on 21 April to safeguard the UK from a range of plant health diseases and pests including Xylella fastidiosa and the emerald ash borer beetle which can kill ash trees.
• The Committee urged publication of Pathway action plans to identify steps to slow the arrival of invasive species. The Government has stated that four of its pathway action plans are now complete (zoos, aquaria, hull fouling and angling), and a further six will be completed by the end of 2022.
• Guidance on tree planting and mandate a biosecurity assurance scheme. The Government has said that as part of its plans for future farming it is conducting research into the supply of high quality, diverse, stocking material in the UK for tree planting. It is also exploring options for introducing biosecurity-based procurement criteria for the supply of plants and trees under government contracts and grants as recommended by the Committee.
• Leaving the EU. The Government confirmed that under retained EU law, there will be an obligation on the Secretary of State to undertake a comprehensive review of the list of species of special concern before 2 August 2022.
• The Committee raised concern that large-scale eradication projects in the Overseas Territories rarely receive enough funding. The Government has said the uplift in funding for the Darwin Plus Programme (2021-2022) to £10 million per annum underlines its commitment to protect the Overseas Territories’ unique environments, including through funding projects to tackle the threat posed by invasive non-native species.

In light of the unprecedented situation we have implemented a number of measures to protect the health and well-being of our employees, our clients and all those with whom we work. We remain committed to maintaining the highest possible level of service to our clients. We are constantly updating our procedures to ensure we are following best practice and have implemented the following:

Remote Working

Currently we are operating as near a normal service as possible. Some of our work can be done by our staff operating remotely from home and we are set up so that all our staff can access all our systems and project information while working from home. We have prepared protocols for work in the office ad

Site Visits

For almost every project it is necessary for us to visit the site in question, either for a walkover or for sampling. Every activity requiring our staff to leave their home is risk assessed. For us risk assessments are a part of daily life, the key change is that this now includes the risks of travel to and from site as well as those on site. We will continue to make site visits where it is possible to do so safely.

Meetings

Our team will not be attending face to face meetings at present. We have the facilities to meet with our clients and contacts via video-link or via conference call.

Continuity

We will make every effort to continue to provide a normal service so please if in doubt contact us and we will advise if we are able to safely undertake your project.

Further Information

The Construction Leadership Council has published guides and videos to provide construction specific guidance on achieving compliance with Covid 19 best practice.

In summary we can breath a sigh of relief and carry on as before with a system that allows contaminated land to be dealt with by planning conditions.

An appeal for judicial review was made against a Derbyshire council’s consent for a 200-home development less than 100m from a former landfill. The points of appeal in a layman’s summary were a contention that the contaminated land issues had not been adequately addressed. The appeal was rejected after concluding that there was no obligation for any potential contamination of the application site to be assessed and removed before approval was granted.

Another successful on-line networking event by the Building Partnerships team. I enjoyed talking with old friends and making new ones.

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If you would like to join us next time get in touch, Peter George, pdg@gosolve.co.uk

A major update was planned but due to Covid 19 has been delayed. We have received the following email:

MESSAGE FROM ENVIRONMENT AGENCY – PLEASE SHARE.  Unfortunately I am not able to answer any specific follow on questions and cannot give a precise publication date as the publishing lead within the EA has to prioritise coronavirus work.

Dear All

In June 2019, the Environment Agency (EA) published an update to the Model procedures for the management of land contamination (CLR11).

Following the feedback, the EA were due to republish the revised Land contamination: risk management (LCRM) in early 2020.

Given the current coronavirus situation, the EA have decided not to republish a major update.  The time is not right.

Interim update

The EA are however, going to publish an interim update. This includes:

1.     Updated text on the requirements for MCERTS.

2.     Additional  text on the use of in situ testing and rapid measurement techniques (RMTs).

The change to the MCERTS text clarifies that it is only required by the EA on sites that they regulate.

The text on RMTs is not new. It is a part of the MCERTS guidance and in a former position statement and in situ testing is briefly mentioned in CLR11. The EA has updated this text to make it clear these tests subject to meeting other requirements, can be used.

The current coronavirus situation is one of the reasons for publishing the interim update. The use of in situ testing and RMTs may help relieve the pressure from laboratories affected by the current situation.

The EA will publish the interim update as soon as the GOV.UK publishing resource is available.

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The Geospatial Commission (that’s nothing to do with Star Trek or Jedi) has brought together a collection of fifty housing, land and planning open data-sets to make data easier to find. The aim is to add further data-sets over time.

“The Geospatial Commission has identified over 300 datasets that are used during the housing and planning process. They come from a variety of sources, with a variety of licences, and not all of them are open. We have brought them together for the first time in support of our wider Housing and Planning Programme, and today we are publishing a list of 50, 49 of which are covered by OGL. In the coming weeks, we will add further datasets to this list, which will help those looking to understand what data is available, and how it can be accessed.

Of the 300 we have identified, the British Geological Survey is the largest data provider with 49 datasets, followed by local authorities providing 42 datasets. Half of the data sources are published under the OGL, with many of the datasets being found on data.gov”

It should be noted that some may be viewed but not used commercially. Details may be found here.

There is an excellent summary of the government’s response to the ‘intend to publish’ London Plan on the Pinsent Mason website

“The UK government has directed that significant amendments be made to the new London Plan, citing “deeply disappointing” progress on delivering much-needed housing stock. …”

It’s difficult at the moment to think about life after Covid-19 and no one knows how quickly the economy will recover but here is a reminder that at some point the need for more housing will return to the fore.