Contaminated Land Planning Advice

Guidance for developers

The council have produced a guidance leaflet for developers to clarify the requirements for dealing with land contamination as part of the planning and development process. This leaflet has been produced in collaboration with the Oxfordshire Contaminated Land Group and is available to download on the right.

Some developments that are not known to be on or near any former industrial use may still be required to investigate for land contamination.  Developments that are considered in Planning Policy Statement 23: Planning and Pollution Control to be particularly vulnerable to contamination and where an appropriate contamination assessment is required include nurseries, housing, allotments and schools.  For such vulnerable developments the council usually require a full contaminated land preliminary risk assessment except where the developments are proposed on established residential land.  In these situations the applicant can submit a contaminated land statement questionnaire.  This questionnaire will be used as an initial screening tool to decide if further contaminated land investigations are necessary.  The contaminated land statement questionnaire is available to download on the adjacent quick link.

If you need more information, please contact the Environmental Health.