Registers and investigations

An article in ENDS Report has yet again highlighted the worrying lack of progress by local authorities in investigating contaminated sites and making relevant information available on public registers: ENDS Report, November 18, 2021. It suggests that only 237 of the 339 local authorities in England and Wales that are required to keep a public register of contaminated land have actually done so.  Only 34% of these registers have any sites entered on them at all, and almost half of all entries come from three districts: Birmingham with 121, Wolverhampton with 83 and St Helens with 73.  These in turn only amount to eight sites, since most represent individual residential properties located on former landfills, factories or gasworks. The report suggests that lack of funds and of suitable qualified staff are to blame for this deficit of information.

Text references: 1-09, 2-13, 6-55