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FOI request (FOIR-495432394)
Contamination Strategy
Requested Fri 10 March 2023
Responded Tue 11 April 2023Can you please inform me if the Council has designated this land as 'Contaminated Land' and as such Special Land.
F1578B identification of contaminated land. Every council is required to conduct special site tests on a regular basis under the Planning Act.
F1578B Identification of contaminated land.
(1)Every local authority shall cause its area to be inspected from time to time for the purpose -
(a) of identifying contaminated land; and
(b) of enabling the authority to decide whether any such land is land which is required to be designated as a special site.
(2) In performing its functions under subsection (1) above a local authority shall act in accordance with any guidance issued for the purpose by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 78YA below.
(3) If a local authority identifies any contaminated land in its area, it shall give notice of that fact to -
(a) the appropriate Agency;
(b) the owner of the land;
(c) any person who appears to the authority to be in occupation of the whole or any part of the land; and
(d) each person who appears to the authority to be an appropriate person;
and any notice given under this subsection shall state by virtue of which of paragraphs (a) to (d) above it is given.
(4) If, at any time after a local authority has given any person a notice pursuant to subsection (3)(d) above in respect of any land, it appears to the enforcing authority that another person is an appropriate person, the enforcing authority shall give notice to that other person -
(a) of the fact that the local authority has identified the land in question as contaminated land; and
(b) that he appears to the enforcing authority to be an appropriate person.
Part 2A of the 1990 Act defines 'contaminated land', and provides for the Secretary of State to issue guidance (that is, this guidance) on how local authorities should determine which land is contaminated land and which is F1578B.
I understand the Council has this matter under 'Planning' and not 'Part II EPA 1990', even though you were required to obtain this document when the local authority was the owner of this land under Cllr. Peter Chowney's Directorship of Sea Space and the Leader of the Council. Under Section II of EPA 1990, it was also evident that you were required to evaluate whether this land was Category 1 or Category 2. At the time, the following tests were required as part of:
Section 78A(2): 'contaminated land' is any land which appears to the local authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land that - (a) significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or (b) significant pollution of controlled waters is being caused, or there is a significant possibility of such pollution being caused;
• Section 78A(4): 'Harm' means harm to the health of living organisms or other interference with the ecological systems of which they form part and, in the case of man, includes harm to his property.
• Section 78A(5): The questions - (a) what harm or pollution of controlled waters is to be regarded as 'significant', and (b) whether the possibility of significant harm or of significant pollution of controlled waters being caused is 'significant', shall be determined in accordance with guidance issued for the purpose by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 78YA below.
• Section 78A(6): Without prejudice to the guidance that may be issued under sub-section (5) above, guidance under paragraph (a) of that sub-section may make provision for different degrees of importance to be assigned to, or for the disregard of (a) different descriptions of living organisms or ecological systems or of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter or solid waste matter; (b) different descriptions of places or controlled waters, or different degrees of pollution; or (c) different descriptions of harm to health or property, or other interference; and guidance under paragraph (b) of that subsection may make provision for different degrees of possibility to be regarded as 'significant' (or as not being 'significant') in relation to different descriptions of significant harm or of significant pollution.
Can you then please provide me this data with respect to these tests for category 1 or category 2? It is evident that these carcinogens are 78A(5) and 78A(6) in the water from communications in 2006 with the EPA and Ms. Carol Candalish (deceased). Furthermore, from my communications to you expressing 'harm', I would have expected you to invoke 78A(4), 78A(5), and 78A(6) and contact the Secretary of State accordingly. Can you therefore provide this communication and its outcome?
Can you please provide the current levels of contaminants on this site in the unremediated area listed below and provide the current SCG threshold? It is clearly established in the EPA's and Ashdown's responses to planning that these data would be required to be collected by specialists at regular intervals. Please provide current levels of contamination for these three contaminants. 1-3 in the water course provide these current values and SCG for contaminants 1-3 below in the soil samples in the contaminated area.
1) BAP Benzo(a)Pyrene
2) PAH Poly Aromatic Carbon (PAH)
3) PAH Nickel Lead Arsenic
A further email from [REDACTED] 08/04/2006 states, 'The area of the former Mount Pleasant Hospital site is contaminated with POLY AROMATIC HYDROCARBON, a compound that causes bowl and bladder cancer, which the council acknowledges is present on the site and that there is a serious health risk over a number of years'.
It is disclosed in a letter dated March 28, 2006 from Mrs. Carol Candlish that PAH-NICKEL-LEAD-ARSENIC [1] a known biohazard to human health, was a contaminant on the Millennium Ground site, formerly the Mount Pleasant Hospital site, yet this information was not made available by Council to Mr. Richard Hollux, Planning Inspector, and is to all senses and purposes being hidden!
It is disclosed that a warning was issued to Seaspace on January 26th, 2006.
It is disclosed in communication with EPA 28th March 2006 that Mrs Candalish stated the ground water had been contaminated by Seaspace NIRS00384093 17th March 2006 (email 8th March 2006 [REDACTED]) [REDACTED]. I have marked the map and returned the locations. In view of this extremely worrying information we the residents have to have this water tested.
Response
Hastings Borough Council holds no information in respect of this request.
As previously advised, a ground contamination risk assessment was completed as part of the redevelopment process and can be viewed on our website through the planning portal reference HS/CD/22/00389:
https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/searching/
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