Contaminated Land Searches and Consultation advice

Contaminated land searches

Overview

We carry out a search, give you information available to the council and identify any contaminative use surrounding the site.

Searches can take up to 21 days.

Request a search

Email our Environmental Health Team. You’ll need the following:

• your name
• address
• contact number
• the full site address
• a map of the site

Fee

The service costs £25 an hour.

The first hour is payable in advance. After we've completed the search, we confirm if and how much extra you need to pay.

Once you've paid any additional fees, we'll send you the search.

Pay

To make a payment you must quote our reference number 21/521463/PCONTL. Failure to do so may invalidate your payment.

Alternatively, make a payment is using our online form.

Contaminated land search payment

What happens next?

We can provide a written response to enquiries on potential land contamination using information available to us in relation to planning history, previous enquiries or investigations, historic mapping and our prioritisation work under Part2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.  The council does not issue a “Pass” certificate of the type issued by commercial search companies.

Pre-application consultation advice

Overview

We are regularly contacted by consultants and developers to review and approve a scope of works or make comments on a completed report/assessment prior to submission to the client or the planning department. Comments on the proposed scope of works or report/assessment will be provided by the Environmental Protection Team. This includes advice regarding further works needed or additional codes of practice/British Standards/policy documents etc to be referred to. It should be noted that that work does not include the Environmental Protection Team writing or specifying a scope of works from ‘scratch’.

Apply

Email our Environmental Health Team or call 01622 602460/602450. You’ll need the following:

• Location of the land or site (including a map of the site boundary)
• Information relating to the proposed scope of works or a copy of the report/assessment to upload
• Any additional questions

Fee

For this service, we charge £55 per hour (inclusive of VAT) with a minimum charge of 1 hour payable in advance.

Pay

Make a payment is using our online form.

Pre-application advice payment

What happens next:

Once you’ve successfully made the request, we’ll provide you with a written (usually emailed) response. Should the enquiry take longer than 1 hour, we will contact you to obtain the additional fee required prior to the response being sent.

The comments received/advice given will be the same as the officer would make if reviewing the planning application and represents their professional opinion based upon the information provided.  The consultant/developer is free to take on board that advice or comments or continue with their application/submission to the planning authority.