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December 2011 headlines (issue 56)

UK’s oldest green charity to close
The land sector has lost a powerful lobbying voice with the news Environmental Protection UK is no more.

Excavations ‘very undesirable’ at windfarm site
Land contamination has been raised as an issue by a campaigner against a wind farm at Frodsham Marsh in Cheshire.

EIC NPPF campaign
The Environmental Industries Commission has called on government to “recognise the redevelopment of brownfield land as a driver of economic growth” in the draft National Planning Policy Framework – and retain the brownfield first target.

EAC criticises planning policy
The Environmental Audit Committee has written to prime minister David Cameron expressing members’ concerns about the “unsatisfactory” wording of the draft National Planning Policy Framework and calling for a clearer definition of sustainable development.

Housing Strategy puts boot into brownfield
The government’s new Housing Strategy contains a further attack on brownfield policy.

BGS background levels project
The British Geological Survey is carrying out a research project to determine typical background concentrations of contaminants in English soils on behalf of Defra.

Camden consulting on Ascham Street clean-up
Camden Council is consulting residents of Ascham Street, determined under Part 2A in 2005 due to elevated levels of lead and cadmium, with a view to carrying out remediation.

SEPA sets Dalgety Bay deadline
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has established a group of experts on radioactivity to provide advice and guidance on the contamination at Dalgety Bay following its decision to make the UK’s first designation of radioactively contaminated land – unless the Ministry of Defence “comes back with a credible long-term remediation plan” by the end of February.

Snowman investigation launch
The European network for Sustainable Management of Soil and Groundwater has launched research projects on mercury contamination, integrating bioavailability in risk assessment, and polar polycyclic aromatic compounds.

Ransome Road junction works completed
Junction improvements on a key route into Northampton town centre have boosted plans for a brownfield development on a site owned by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Nuclear clean-up scrutinised
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum has held its seventeenth meeting at the Leeds City Museum, focusing on nuclear decommissioning.

Revising the Part 2A guidance
Hydrock’s Kevin Privett has been closely involved in revision of Part 2A statutory guidance. Here he sets out how he thinks new guidance will look

Hazardous waste dumped on Oxford golf course
The Environment Agency has intervened to prevent the illegal burying of waste on an Oxford golf course.

McAuliffe award
McAuliffe Civil Engineering has been named best small family business at the 2011 Midlands Family Business Awards.

Illegal waste site blitz
A specialist environmental crime taskforce will “blitz” illegal waste sites in England and Wales over the next two years, the Environment Agency said.

Mercury exposure
The Health Protection Agency is to investigate the extent to which people are being exposed to several chemicals found in the environment.

Healthy soils website
Environmental Protection UK has launched www.healthysoils.org, which “sets out the importance of soils to key aspects of human life including climate change, food, water, biodiversity and health”.

Treatability bulletins
CL:AIRE has published two treatability bulletins, which “describe the key factors to be considered in the early stages of designing a remediation project”.

SuRF indicator set
The SuRF-UK steering group has published Annex 1 – the SuRF-UK indicator set for sustainable remediation assessment, which supports the SuRF-UK framework document.

Quarry restoration award
A former sand and gravel quarry in North Yorkshire, restored to wetland by cement company Lafarge, has been praised by Natural England for its habitat.

SEPA appointments
A deputy chair and four board members have been appointed to SEPA for a period of four years from 1 January 2012.

Land Forum subgroup
Seven individuals from different local authorities will take two rotating places on the better regulation sub-group of the Land Forum.

Asbestos web forum
The Environment Industries Commission’s asbestos in soil group on linkedin.com now has 46 members – with “broad representation from across the industry”.

Online lab results
Analytical services company ALcontrol has launched a new version of its @mis online analytical data reporting tool that features an “alarms and triggers” module.

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