MINUTES: Laura Grimwood

DATE: 12th March 2014

Item Information Action 1 Apologies and attendance:

Attendance: Laura Grimwood, Nicola Franklin, Jonathan Driver, Tracey Collins, Richard Ward, Sam Guppy, Paula Awty, Simon Downs, Wendy Shakespeare, Neil Hince, Neil Scott

Apologies: Kevin Beer, Fiona Goode, Alison Harker, Paul Slaughter, Steve Guppy

2 Presentation by Andrew Wiseman – Chair of Defra Contaminated Land Expert Panel.

 The board has been made up of: a non-technical chair (Solicitor); LA officers who have done Part IIA determinations and have experience of capital land grants; Consultants who are Silc registered and have Part IIA experience; Large land owner (National Grid) etc.  CLA:IRE is the secretariat who administers the group.  Only take human health studies.  Potential case studies are sent to CLA:IRE. CLA:IRE then email the group with the appropriate person named so that any conflict of interest can be checked. AW then selects two members to carry out the initial screen. This is where they can ask for more information if it is needed.  Then a meeting will be set up. There are monthly dates in the calendar when all of the group are available.  Case studies don’t have to concern the whole site it could just be a couple of houses that the LA is struggling with.  Some LAs have approach the panel purely for security with their members that they are making the right decision.  The panel isn’t asking for anything extra that isn’t stipulated in the statutory guidance.  The LA have to agree to the case study being published.  Immediate feedback is given on the day, which is then followed up in writing normally within 6 weeks.  There have been 4 cases submitted so far. The first case study is due to be published immanently.  There is a debate to be had about sites at the top of a LA prioritisation list not being investigated. Are you leaving yourself open to be sued?  Landmark searches are only valid for a year. Sometimes if you say you won’t look into it for two years it will be ‘passed’.

Soil Framework Directive is in draft form at the moment. Environmental ministers have discussed it with the Environment Commissioner. It is likely to be withdrawn but a new one will be replacing it. Looks like between 5-7 countries won’t vote for it. Part IIA will probably be amended to bring it into line with the Soil Framework Directive and most likely that this will happen before the next general election.

3 Minutes from last meeting: Sam Check if the presentation from the last meeting by the EA is on the website for Guppy the group.

4 EA/ LA updates:

EA – Will be sending out a briefing note about landfills and petrol stations and how groundwater levels will affect these sites. There can be stability and ground gas issues. PWS may also be affected with higher nitrate levels. New Forest – Ealing Wharf – remediation to start in 2017, there have been lots of planning meetings. Hoping to finish the prioritisation at the end of March. Then proceed with desk top studies. Havant – signed of some large and complicated sites. Voluntary remediation is on going after a petrol station leak. East Hants – Looking at landfills in the Borough under Part IIA, second phase of investigation. Soil samples have been taken in a garden after resident had high blood lead levels. Receiving lots of scoping opinions through planning about larger developments. Fareham – Into the final stage of the partnership with Gosport. Voluntary remediation taking place on a depot site. Human Health Risk assessment on landfill sites in process. An investigation for a large airfield (MOD) is in and must be occupied by 2015. MSc in Environmental Health nearly complete. Eastleigh – Local plan out for consultation. Looking to get prioritisation down to 60 sites and then move forward. Not sure how. Strategy needs redoing. There are plans coming forward for the riverside site, which may be a potential enterprise zone. Southampton – The diocese are now voluntarily remediating the school site under Part IIA. In terms of the strategy the plan is that unless something comes to light they will not be going out and looking for it. Portsmouth – They had appointed a contaminated land manager but that has since fallen through. Sarah is back as a consultant in the meantime. Tipner is progressing and a big supermarket is going in near the football stadium. Absolutely inundated with planning work. Basingstoke – Lots of planning coming in and the strategy is nearly redone. Rushmoor – Has an annual budget of roughly £10,000 for contaminated land work, but nothing is progressing very quickly at the moment. Hart – Same as SCC that planning will drive Part IIA work. The local plan has been thrown out. Inundated with planning at the moment, including some large developments on MOD land. The strategy needs redoing.

5 Sub-Groups: i) Background Levels: No update. Going to scrap this sub-group until C4SLs published. ii) Developers Guide / Planning policy: Completed developers guide. No update on planning policy side. iii) Building Control: Check with AH for an update iv) Imported Materials: No progress 6 Chair and Secretary Posts:

Simon Downs as Chair and Jonathan Driver as Secretary were both nominated and seconded unanimously by the group. The positions will be reviewed in a year.

7 Funding of Part IIA Investigations in your Local Authority:

 EBC are hoping to remain proactive using the little money that they get each year.  NFDC have some money to carry out desktop studies.  Havant are changing the strategy to re-prioritise for extremely high risk sites.  Rushmoor will now be purely reactive Part IIA work.  Southampton are also now purely reactive Part IIA work.  BDBC hoping to remain proactive but no committed internal money as yet.

8 Website: Deferred to next meeting

9 Training: Deferred to next meeting

10 AOB:

Next Meetings:

Tuesday 3rd June – East Hants BC - Talk from Gareth Leonard (Regenisis) on Remediation Technologies.

Wednesday 3rd September – Basingstoke – Talk from Hazel Davidson on VOC behaviour in the Environment

Tuesday 9th December – Hart – Talk from Dr Mark Cave on Background Concentrations