Draft Planning Application Validation Checklist

What is it?

Policy ENV1 of the Plan Strategy states that planning permission will be granted for development that will maintain and, where possible, enhance environmental quality, and protect communities from materially harmful development. Development must not result in an unacceptable adverse impact on the environment, including from ground contamination.

Land contamination can harm:

• human health;
• drinking water supplies, groundwater and surface water;
• soils;
• ecosystems including wildlife, animals and wetlands;
• property.

In accordance with the Land Contamination Risk Management (LCRM) guidance (link opens in new window) published by the UK Environment Agency, the Contaminated Land Assessment process is used to:

• identify and assess if there is an unacceptable risk;
• assess what remediation options are suitable to manage the risk;
• plan and carry out remediation;
• verify that remediation has worked.

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When is it required?

A Contaminated Land Assessment should be submitted with applications for proposals on, or close to, land which has a current or previous use that has the potential for harmful contamination.

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What should be included?

A Contaminated Land Assessment should be produced by a competent person in accordance with the staged risk based approach presented in the LCRM guidance. There are three stages and each stage is broken down into tiers or steps.

Stage 1: Risk assessment

The LCRM presents a tiered approach to risk assessment. The three tiers are:

1. Preliminary risk assessment.
2. Generic quantitative risk assessment.
3. Detailed quantitative risk assessment.

Stage 2: Options appraisal

There are 3 steps to follow.

1. Identify feasible remediation options.
2. Do a detailed evaluation of options.
3. Select the final remediation option.

Stage 3: Remediation and verification

There are 4 steps to follow.

1. Develop a remediation strategy.
2. Remediate.
3. Produce a verification report.
4. Do long term monitoring and maintenance, if required.

Where a Contaminated Land Assessment is required, a preliminary risk assessment should be provided.  The stages outlined above should then be followed; the risk assessment process may be exited at various stages if the assessment confirms that there are no unacceptable risks and that no further action is needed.  All of the relevant reports (identified as being required through the process), up to and including the remediation strategy, should be submitted.

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Guidance

A few examples of potentially contaminated land include:

• previously developed land (brownfield sites);
• former industrial land (for example engineering or chemical works, textile works and foundries);
• petrol filling stations and garages (and other land uses associated with fuel storage);
• waste facilities; and
• areas that have been subject to in-filling and/or reclamation.

Further information may be obtained by referring to DoE Industry Profiles.

It should be noted that references to the Part 2A contaminated land regime within the LCRM do not apply in Northern Ireland.

All Contaminated Land Assessments should be undertaken in accordance with relevant British Standards and industry best practice (as outlined within the LCRM guidance).

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) Land Use Database contains a record of approximately 14,000 sites across Northern Ireland that have had previous industrial land use(s). This database is available via the OSNI Spatial NI - Map Viewer.  Other important sources of information in regard to land contamination assessments include historical maps (such as those provided within the PRONI Historical Maps viewer) and geological and hydrogeological information (such as that provided within the GSNI GeoIndex map viewer).  It may also be useful to seek environmental information on specific sites from relevant authorities, including the Environmental Health Service in the Council.