Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey 2004
11.5 Table 23 shows the contamination status of existing derelict and urban vacant sites and sites brought back into use in 2004. In 2004, 11 derelict sites covering 37 hectares (8 per cent of the total), were known to have contamination compared to 22 per cent of all existing derelict and urban vacant land which is known to be contaminated.
Table 23: Contamination status of existing derelict and urban vacant sites and those brought back into use since the previous survey, 2004
Contamination Status 1 | Existing derelict and Urban Vacant Land | Derelict and Urban Vacant Land brought back into use |
Area (ha) | % of Total Land (by Area) | No. of Sites | Area (ha) | % of Total Land (by Area) | No. of Sites |
Known contamination | 2,352 | 95 | 168 | 37 | 98 | 11 |
Tested and found not to be contaminated | 125 | 5 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Unknown 2 | 8,185 | - | 3,986 | 429 | - | 366 |
Total | 10,661 | 100 | 4,174 | 466 | 100 | 378 |
1. The contamination status shown here refers to the status of the sites as recorded by local authorities. For those sites brought back into use land may be decontaminated, or tested and found not to be contaminated.
2. Unknown values are excluded from the calculation of percentage values
11.6 The new use of sites, or parts of sites, that were reclaimed or brought back into use (excluding sites removed for definitional reasons) is shown in Table 24. Chart 6 shows the distribution of new uses for derelict and urban vacant land brought back into use since the previous survey. The most common new use for derelict land was residential development, with 59 per cent (107 hectares) of the land area reclaimed for this purpose. The second most common new use for derelict land was agriculture, for which 8 per cent (14 hectares) was used. 62 per cent (178 hectares) of urban vacant land was brought back into use for residential development and 10 per cent (27 hectares) brought back into use for other general industry.