In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
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.

Like the Royal ordnance site at Waltham Abbey which caused such a furore
when BAe bought it from the government for a quid

There were actually two sites, on one of them, the top metre of the
whole site had to be removed , taken up to Bedford, put through an
incinerator and returned

On the other site (where my factory was) they managed to get round this
somehow. It's now mainly a depot for another supermarket chain



--
geoff