Scottish Government

Annex: Considerations when interpreting the data

A.1 Data Quality Local authorities may not update all historic site information every survey, consequently some site information may not be current. For example, a site may be sold and change ownership type or sites might change contamination status. Such changes could happen without the local authorities knowledge.

A.2 Removal and Addition of Sites . The means by which new sites are detected are largely centred on the expert knowledge of local authority planning officers. It is very important to note that Table 22, which shows new sites added since the previous survey, shows only entirely new sites. Sites that have increased in size since the previous survey are not shown. Similarly, when part of a site is brought back into use, that part is detailed in the 'B' data set, and the part not brought back into use remains in the survey 'A' data set.

A.3 Changes in Site Details . Changes in site details can also cause other difficulties in interpreting the data. The most notable are when two separate sites become joined by the inclusion of a further piece of vacant or derelict land, and alternatively when a single site has a central area brought back into use, such that the remaining disused area does not form a single contiguous site. The first of these scenarios is the most awkward from a statistical viewpoint, as data regarding previous use etc. for both sites are unlikely to be compatible. Where this happens, details from the largest contributing site are used to describe the new, compound site.

A.4 Definition of Contamination. The SVDLS bulletin reports on sites which are available for re-use, and as such, contamination is defined in terms of its potential impact on development. This is either as a direct result of the contamination itself or through the costs of remediation prior to re-development. The definition of 'contamination' in the SVDLS differs considerably that set out in Part IIA (Contaminated Land) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which refers to land causing a threat to human health or the wider environment. It seems likely that all derelict sites, which are contaminated under the Part IIA definition, should also be regarded as contaminated under the SVDLS definition, but not necessarily vice versa. However, during the 2005 survey year, a number of sites were reclassified in the SVDLS from 'known' to 'unknown' contamination. This was due to certain local authorities bringing their interpretation of the term 'contamination' into line with the term used in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This reclassification accounts for the vast majority of the apparent fall in 'known contaminated land' between 2004 and 2005, from 2,325 hectares to 1,186 hectares. Only 144 hectares of that fall can be accounted for by formerly contaminated land actually being reclaimed to a new use.

A.5 Ownership. Details of ownership are not always readily available to local authorities, and this is reflected by the large amount of land of 'Unknown' ownership shown in Table 7. Annex Chart A illustrates the relationship between unknown ownership and the length of time sites have lain vacant or derelict. Each column represents the percentage of all sites in that category for which ownership is unknown. Using the percentage values gives a clearer picture of the extent of the problem by standardising the 'number' of sites in each age category. Ownership was unknown for 17 per cent of the sites that had lain vacant or derelict since 2001, compared to 21 per cent of all sites that had lain vacant or derelict since before 1991.

Annex Chart A: Percentage of sites where principal owner is unknown by period since which they have lain vacant or derelict, 2005

A.6 Previous Use and Length of Time Vacant or Derelict . Knowledge of the use to which a site was formerly put is important in assessing it for potential contamination. The triple of previous, intended and actual usages of reclaimed derelict land and urban vacant land brought back into use is also important in determining the success of local plans. In order to carry this assessment through, it is necessary to have information about the previous use of sites. However, there appears to be a relationship between the length of time a site has been vacant or derelict and the information available about its previous use, as shown in Annex Chart B. For each time period, the percentage of sites for which there is no available information about previous use is given. The longer a site has been disused the less likely is the possession of information about its previous use. The exception to this is in the very oldest class of sites (pre-1981) which contains 733 out of a total of 4,093 sites.

Annex Chart B: Percentage of sites where previous use is unknown by period since which they have lain vacant or derelict, 2005

A.7 Land area eligible . Although local authorities are asked to note all derelict land for the survey (see Annex section A.11 regarding Highland council), the recording of vacant land is restricted to all land located within any settlement as defined by the local authority in the latest council approved local plan. Consequently, the actual land area surveyed for vacant land is often considerably smaller than the total land area of each local authority, especially in the case of the more rural areas.

A.8 Settlements of population 2,000 and over cut-off. Local authorities were asked to survey for vacant land within all settlements defined in their latest council approved local plans. However, due to resource constraints on some local authorities (particularly those covering large rural areas), some were unable to do a full survey of every settlement for vacant land. All did however survey every settlement within their boundaries that had a population of 2,000 or more. Therefore to ensure consistency in data presentation, the statistics presented on vacant land throughout this bulletin refer only to land located within settlements that have a population of at least 2,000 (according to the local plan).

Some local authorities did carry out either a full or partial survey for vacant land in settlements of under 2,000 in population. All vacant sites located within settlements of under 2,000 in population are shown separately from the rest of the bulletin in Annex Table A below.

Annex Table A: Vacant Land within Settlements of under 2,000 in population, 2005 ^1,2

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding
2. Local Authorities represented by a dash '-' in the above table have surveyed for vacant land within settlements of under 2,000 in population but have not found any sites to include in the survey.

All the local authorities shown in the above table have conducted either a full or partial survey for vacant land within settlements of under 2,000 in population. Any local authorities not shown in the above table have either not surveyed any settlement of under 2,000 in population for vacant land ( e.g. Aberdeenshire and Dumfries & Galloway) or do not contain any settlements of under 2,000 in population according to local plans ( e.g. Aberdeen City and Glasgow City).

It is estimated that in total 12,023 hectares of land within settlements of under 2,000 in population were surveyed for vacant land in Scotland during 2005. From this area, local authorities reported a total of 108 hectares of vacant land across 67 sites. Perth & Kinross has the highest amount of reported vacant land within settlements of under 2,000 in population, with 27 hectares across 4 sites.

Annex Table B: Derelict Land as a percentage of total area by local authority area, 2005 ^{1, 2}

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding
2. 2002 data have been used for the Scottish Borders council area.
3. The land areas used to calculate the percentage of councils that are derelict were Standard Area Measurements as supplied by Ordnance Survey. This is the area to Mean High Water less inland water. The area measurements are a definitive set derived from boundaries maintained by Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. The current measurements may differ from those published previously in tables, publications, or other statistical outputs, even allowing for boundary changes or changes to the physical structure of the land because of improvements in the source of data. Figures presented for area are for census day, 29 ^th April, 2001.
4. Data in Table used to construct Map 1 shown on page 6 of this bulletin..

Annex Table C: Proportion of local authority population living within 500m of a Derelict Site, 2005 ^{1, 2}

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding
2. 2002 data have been used for the Scottish Borders council area.

A.9 Estimate of the proportion of local authority population living within 500m of a Derelict Site. Annex Table C above shows an estimate for each local authority of the number of people living within 500m of a derelict site. Using the 2005 SVDLS data, a buffer zone based on the area of each derelict site was drawn around the grid co-ordinate points supplied for that site. This gives an estimated boundary for each site. Data should be treated with care as it is not the 'actual' site boundaries that are being used.

For each postcode in Scotland the distance to the nearest estimated site boundary was calculated to determine whether a derelict site boundary was within 500m of that postcode. The population (obtained in the GROS 2001 census) for each postcode within 500m of a derelict site was aggregated to give a figure for each datazone. Those datazones were then aggregated up to give overall figures for each local authority. The percentage of population living within 500m of a derelict site for each local authority was then calculated.

Overall it is estimated that 27.49 per cent of the population in Scotland live within 500m of a derelict site. The 2004 data on proximity to derelict land, split by datazone can be found on the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website at http://www.sns.gov.uk/. The web site will be updated with the 2005 survey results in April 2006.

A.10 Definitions/Interpretations. The SVDLS guidelines clearly state the definitions for the recording of derelict and urban vacant land. Where difficulties are encountered, the guidelines have been modified to assist in the provision of uniform returns, but ultimately the survey relies on the consistent application of definitions between local authorities and through subsequent years. Some of the changes reported in Annex Table D (sites removed for 'definitional' reasons) come about following a reappraisal of the survey guidelines, and the introduction of GIS systems has allowed planning officers to improve data quality. Since the last survey, 23 hectares of land were removed from the survey for definitional reasons. Since the last survey 21 sites (72 hectares in total) across 10 local authorities were removed due to naturalisation.

Annex Table D: sites removed for definitional reasons, by local authority area, 2005 ¹

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding

A.11Land surveyed by Highland Council. Due to the large area of land covered by Highland Council, a partial survey has been carried out in each year since 2002. Only derelict and urban vacant sites within settlements containing a population of 2,000 or over and derelict sites within the inner Moray Firth area have been surveyed. Therefore, whilst the data for Highland includes all relevant vacant sites as presented in the main part of this bulletin, it excludes any changes to derelict sites outwith settlements of population 2,000 and over outwith the inner Moray Firth area. This equates to 10 per cent of the derelict land reported in the Highlands area in 2005. A recent contract has been let to consultants to survey derelict sites in outlying parts of Highland council area. The results from this contract will be available in April 2006.

A.12 Local Government reorganisation. Following the reorganisation of local government in 1996, the Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire area was expanded to include Rutherglen and Cambuslang from Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, and Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and the 'Northern Corridor' from Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire. The 'Northern Corridor' is defined as that part of North Lanarkshire Council's area that was in the former Strathkelvin District Authority's area prior to the local government reorganisation.

A.13 Database of Sites. A database of existing sites detailing their name, type (vacant or derelict), size (in hectares) and location (by local authority and whether or not the site is within a settlement or the countryside) is available on the Scottish Executive's Planning Statistics web page at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/17731/9698. Copies can also be sent out by contacting the Analytical Services Division of the Development Department on 0131 244 0439. Information from this data base was used to construct Map 2 (shown on page 22 of this bulletin) which plots derelict sites in the central belt area of Scotland.

Local authority participation

A.14 Participation of Local Authorities. It is important to remember throughout the interpretation of the figures reported in this bulletin that not all local authorities participate in the survey every year. There are two main impacts arising from this:

1. Comparisons between years must be made with extreme care and only for individual local authorities where suitable data exist.
2. Where a local authority has not provided data every year, the recorded change will be since the last survey, and will thus reflect several years' worth of change.

Non-participating councils are identified for each year since 1995 in Annex Table E.

Annex Table E: Local Authorities NOT participating in the survey, 1995-2005

1. Only Banff and Buchan District did not respond
2. Only the SVDLS-A data file was provided
3. See Annex Section A.11.
4. 2002 data submitted late, included in this publication. 2002 figures have been revised to include the return.

Annex: SVDLS 2005 Form A

Survey Form A contains questions covering the following information

Location

1) Council Code
2) Local Enterprise Company Code
3) LA reference code for site
4) Database History (1= New Record 2=Existing Record)
5) OS Grid Reference
6) Name and Address of site

Site Characteristics

1) Site Size (hectares)
2) Vacant or derelict
3) Ownership of site (for categories, see table 6)
4) Date of first inspection of the site (DD/MM/YYYY format)
5) Length of time site has been vacant or derelict
6) Previous use of site (for categories, see table 10)
7) Contamination
- Contamination indicator (for categories, see table 6)
- Type of Contamination (for categories, see table 7)
8) Mineral workings indicator
9) Environmental factors (up to 2 factors i.e. Greenbelt, SSSI)
10) Intrusiveness of site
- General location (urban or rural)
- Surrounding activities (up to 2 activities)
- Visibility

Development Potential

1) Status of local plan
2) Preferred or intended uses (for categories, see table 26)
3) Development potential

Annex: SVDLS 2005 Form B.

Survey Form B contains questions covering the following information

Location

1) Council Code
2) Local Enterprise Company Code
3) LA Reference code for site
4) Previous LA Reference code
5) OS grid reference for site

Site Characteristics

1) Site previously vacant or derelict (categorised by the following)
- Derelict buildings
- Derelict land
- Derelict land and buildings
- Operational Land defined as Derelict
- Vacant land
- Vacant land and buildings
2) Size of area reclaimed or brought back into use (hectares)
3) New Use (for categories, see table 18). It also includes
- Sites amalgamated into a single larger site
- Sites split into smaller sites
- Sites which have become naturalised
- Sites removed from the survey for definitional reasons
4) Month and year brought back into use
5) Source of funding used to bring site back into use (for categories, see table 19)
6) Sources of public funding used (for categories, see table 20)

Extracts from the SVDLS 2005 guidance notes

What is the SVDLS?

The SVDLS is a survey undertaken to establish the extent and state of vacant and derelict land in Scotland. The survey has been operating since 1988 and is managed by the Scottish Executive Sub Group of the Scottish Built Environment Statistics Advisory Committee ( BESAC: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/scotstats.asp ). The Scottish Executive Environment and Planning Statistics Branch manage the operation of the survey.

The data provided as part of this survey provides an invaluable source of information relating to vacant and derelict sites and assists in reinforcing and justifying national policy established to bring about the re-use of these wasted resources.

The following diagram summarises the SVDLS process:

What are the requirements of the SVDLS?

1) The key requirements

The survey requires that you:

• Check and amend, if necessary, information held on sites previously identified.
• Add details of any new sites that you have identified since the last survey.
• Remove and inform us of any sites, which are no longer to be included as vacant or derelict.

2) Electronic Returns

To return the required information electronically you should:

• Use database SVDLS-A to record new sites and to update or amend information on previously identified sites which are still to be included.
• Use database SVDLS-B to record details of sites, wholly or in part, which you are removing from the main SVDLS-A database.

What sites should be included?

Vacant Land

4) What should be recorded as VACANT land?

For the purposes of this survey, vacant land is:

5) How to decide whether land is vacant or merely open space

The distinction between passive open space, incidental open space and vacant land has proved problematic. If the answer to any of the following questions is yes, then the site is not vacant:

• Does the land appear to be designed as open space?
• Is there knowledge of any actual or notional maintenance regime?

If there is doubt as to whether or not a site is 'vacant' or 'open space', give open space the benefit of the doubt and do not classify the site as vacant.

If development is proposed for open space at some point in the future, the open space remains not vacant even where identified for development and should not be included in the survey unless or until it has acquired the characteristics of urban vacant land.

However, where a site has been treated and prepared for development, e.g. for industry, classify the site as vacant even if it functions temporarily as open space.

6) Should Area Renewal Sites be included as vacant?

Area Renewal Sites (renewal of public sector housing estates), should be included as vacant only after demolition has started. The site boundary should be based on the area for intended redevelopment which may encompass old roads, incidental open space etc. but should be so defined as to exclude any occupied buildings or buildings whose demolition is not certain.

Note: Area Renewal specifically refers to the renewal of public sector housing estates and is to be distinguished from the normal process of urban regeneration. It is identified as a special case because of its prevalence in the major urban areas and the need to simplify and clarify how it should be classified for this survey.

7) What sites should definitely not be included as vacant?

Do not include:

a) Sites which cover less than 0.1 hectare.
However, if several small contiguous sites of less than 0.1 ha. are regarded as a single site for redevelopment/refurbishment purposes, then a SINGLE combined entry for the aggregated area may be made, provided that this is at least 0.1 ha.

b) Land held for operational needs (for example railways, mineral workings etc.)

c) Saltings, marshes or such like

d) Agricultural Land within the curtilage of an agricultural holding (even if it is set aside, fallow or unsightly)

e) Countryside or abandoned farmland, unless the site is characterised by specific unsightliness or neglect associated with former urban or industrial activity or severe concentrations of tipping. If classification is in doubt, do not include as vacant

f) Agricultural land or countryside identified for future development, ( e.g. a greenfield release for housing, industry). Such land will generally remain outwith the scope of the vacant land exercise altogether. However, if development proceeds, pockets of such land might be judged as vacant if they become unsightly and/or remain undeveloped within the new urban envelope, i.e. if they take on the characteristics of urban vacant land.

Derelict Land

8) What should be recorded as Derelict Land?

For the purposes of this survey, derelict land (and buildings) in urban and rural areas includes:

• land which has been so damaged by development or use that it is incapable of development for beneficial use without rehabilitation and;
• which is not being used for the purpose for which it is held or for a use acceptable in the local plan;
• land which is not being used and where contamination is known or suspected (even if treatment is required only for the buildings thereon)

Note: Examples of derelict land include disused mines and mineral workings, abandoned industrial land and disused manufacturing sites.

9) How should operational sites be recorded which are partly derelict?

Where part of an operational site is derelict, the site should be split if possible. Where this is not possible, assess whether priority is given to the operational use or to rehabilitation of the site (within 5 years). Include the site in the survey if the priority is to site rehabilitation.

10) What sites should definitely not be included as derelict?

Do not include:

a) sites which cover less than 0.1 hectare;
However, if several small contiguous sites of less than 0.1 ha. are regarded as a single site for redevelopment/refurbishment purposes, then a SINGLE combined entry for the aggregated area may be made, provided that this is at least 0.1 hectare;b) operational sites where rehabilitation would not be possible or appropriate within five years;c) land which is derelict through natural causes (for example neglected woodland/farmland, marshland or mudflats) and which appears to have blended into the landscape.

The following points affect vacant AND derelict sites

11) How should a site be recorded which is part vacant and part derelict?A site which is part vacant and part derelict should be recorded as derelict.

12) Should a site be included if it is already included on the ESR?

Any vacant or derelict sites already included on the Employment Sites Register ( ESR) should also be included in the SVDLS provided they fit the criteria set out above.

13) Should a site be included if development has been started but abandoned?

Where development has been started then abandoned, consideration should be given to the likelihood of completion and the state of dereliction/unsightliness in deciding whether the site should be classified as vacant, derelict, or neither.