On 2007-07-30 19:14:11 +0100, (Andrew
Gabriel) said:

In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" writes:
Has anyone on list had experience of contractors decontaminating land?
We are buying a parcel of land, part of which was once used as a coal
yard, so there is the odd bit of coal still lying arround, not much
but definately some. Planning permission has been granted for a barn
conversion, but is conditional on a contamination survey, ( inc soil,
soil gas, surface and ground water sampling) the be carried out by 'a
suitably qualified and accredited consultant/contractor..' At the end
of the day it is only a few bits of coal, maybe a few hundredweight
spread over an acre or so, but somthing is going to have to be
sacrified to the local planning gods and some form of decontamination
process carried out.

If you buy the land, you become legally responsible
for decontaminating it, which you have to do.

Sainsbury's bought a large plot in Wheathamstead (Herts)
for a superstore, on which they didn't get planning permission.
Then it was discovered to be contaminated (was the development
site for Murphy's Chemicals in the 1950's and 1960's).
Sainsbury's then had to fork out 10 times the cost of the land
to have it decontaminated. Half of it now has a housing estate
on it (I bet they don't have too many problems with insects and
slugs in their vegetable patches;-), and the other half has got
to run as reed bed for 25 years (at least) to continue the
decontamination.

At the public exhibition, I heard one of the Sainsbury's staff
say the person who bought the land for Sainsbury's and believed
it to have been decontanimated without having it thoroughly
tested first was fired.

Supermarkets don't seem to have much luck in that area, what with
Tescos falling onto the Marylebone main line.