This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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£4.5 m to help clean up contaminated land
25/04/2002
Local authorities are to receive £4.5 million to help clean up Scotland's most polluted land.
Environment Minister Allan Wilson today announced the distribution of the funding as part of the Executive's drive to secure a cleaner and healthier environment for all.
Scotland's local authorities will share in the funding which aims to help them implement the Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations. The objective is to bring historically contaminated land, polluted through earlier mining or industrial activities, back into productive use and eradicate any threat to human health and the environment.
In answer to a question from Nora Radcliffe MSP (Gordon) Allan Wilson said:
"A great deal of polluted land has been inherited from past generations when little or no consideration was given to the impact of our actions on the environment. Today's announcement will help to address this legacy.
"We have allocated £4.5 million capital resources for 2002-2003 to help local authorities carry out their statutory responsibilities under the contaminated land regime which came into force in July 2000.
"The regime provides the best solution to bringing polluted land back into productive use, especially in areas where commercial redevelopment is not likely to bring this about.
"Its main objective is to provide an improved system for the identification and remediation of contaminated land where the contamination is causing unacceptable risk to human health and the wider environment. By providing a vehicle for cleaning up contaminated land it will also facilitate the re-use of brownfield sites and promote the regeneration of urban areas.
"The funds will help local authorities to identify and investigate sites, take forward enforcement action and, in cases where they are unable to identify those responsible for the contamination, carry out remediation work at their own hand.
"Together with the resources we announced in February last year, over the three years 2000-2001 to 2002-2003 the Executive has made capital allocations totalling £9.7 million available to local authorities for work associated with addressing the problem of contaminated land."
The new regime for contaminated land is set out in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as inserted by Section 57 of the Environment Act 1995. This primary legislation was implemented by the Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 [SI No 2000/178] which came into force on 14 July 2000. Accompanying statutory guidance was promulgated in a Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department Circular - Circular 1/2000: Environmental Protection Act 1990: Part IIA Contaminated Land - issued to local authorities on 12 July 2000.
The contaminated land regime provides a framework for local authorities to identify contaminated land and bring about its remediation through the serving of notices. A similar procedure allows the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to bring about the remediation of special sites, as described in Regulations 2 and 3 of the Contaminated Land (Scotland ) Regulations.
The additional costs of implementing the new contaminated land regime were recognised in the Comprehensive Spending Review in 1998 and in the spending review in 2000 by the Scottish Executive. Over the four years 2000-2001 to 2003-2004 a total of £14.7 million is being made available through capital allocations for work associated with the contaminated land regime. This includes £5 million for 2003-2004 which will be allocated in due course. In the absence of any firm data on potential contaminated land sites, resources have been allocated on the basis of a formula derived from data from the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey. Information on the extent and location of contaminated land should become available once local authorities have carried out detailed investigation of individual sites and it is intended that this data should inform the determination of future allocations.
In addition £9.7 million is being made available over the five years 1999-2000 to 2003-2004 as part of the Annual External Finance settlement for local authority current expenditure.
Details of the allocations to individual local authorities are shown in the attached Annex. Shetland receives no capital allocations since it is able to fund its capital expenditure from revenue.
CAPITAL ALLOCATIONS FOR CONTAMINATED LAND
Allocations for 2002-2003 - All figures in thousand pounds
Aberdeen City 65
Aberdeenshire 68
Angus 92
Argyll & Bute 72
Clackmannanshire 45
Dumfries & Galloway 155
Dundee City 142
East Ayrshire 181
East Dunbartonshire 45
East Lothian 57
East Renfrewshire 45
Edinburgh (City of) 181
Eilean Siar 72
Falkirk 114
Fife 266
Glasgow City 513
Highland 297
Inverclyde 56
Midlothian 125
Moray 45
North Ayrshire 181
North Lanarkshire 580
Orkney Islands 45
Perth & Kinross 77
Renfrewshire 181
Scottish Borders 53
Shetland 0
South Ayrshire 66
South Lanarkshire 251
Stirling 85
West Dumbartonshire 92
West Lothian 253
Scotland Total 4500