DEVON County Council is to give the Shutterton Industrial Estate, Dawlish, a major boost but funding depends on the land first being declared contaminated.
Devon County's director of resources, Peter Stabb, revealed this at an informal overview and scrutiny meeting. The site used to be landfill for household refuse, dating back to the urban and rural district council times. There have been problems associated with methane gas generation, pollution to nearby watercourses and high maintenance costs of dealing with continuous settlement.
There is a risk of liability on the district council due to pollution and personal injury. The cost of remediating the site is £4-£4.5 million. External funding to cover the capital cost of the work is not available through the financial annual interest costs associated with borrowing the funds from Defra. In order to access funding to cover the cost of borrowing, Defra requires the council to identify the area as 'contaminated land' and get it listed in the district council's Register of Contaminated Land.
Mr Stabb said: 'The investigation of the various mechanisms of pollution and gas migration has been complex and time consuming. 'But we are now in a position whereby we have reached an agreement with the Environment Agency and Defra on the method of proving these mechanisms.
'Part of our problem over the past few years has been identifying all of the significant problems such that, when we have finished the remediation, we do not have to revisit the sites to deal with pollution not fully addressed in the first instance.
'The time and resources required to carry out these investigations, and to satisfy the Environment Agency and Defra, has required us to focus our resources on the priority area that is Shutterton for reasons of risk to people and property.' Speaking of having to declare the land contaminated, Mr Stabb said: 'This is not something we would do lightly or in haste because of the consequences of such an action. 'For example properties within 250 metres of a contaminated land site would have this fact highlighted on any property searches. We would only wish to take action if we were very sure that we were immediately planning to remediate the site to resolve all contamination issues.' It was said that relocating existing businesses at Shutterton would cost between £15-£20 million. 'Therefore we have no option other than to reduce our health and safety liability and reduce our high maintenance costs by remediating the existing site with the businesses operating in situ,' added Mr Stabb.
The mayor of Dawlish, Cllr Graham Price, said: 'Any clean-up at Shutterton would be welcome because we all know the current state it is in. 'I can appreciate that for a short time it would be classed as contaminated land, possibly creating a backlash for other people in the area. however, that would only be for the time that it took to do the remedial work.
'If the county does go ahead with it then we have to welcome it a positive step for the regeneration of the town and the people who use the business park.' Bob Vickery, of the Dawlish Regeneration Group, said: 'We recognise that the declaration of contaminated land has an impact on adjoining owners, but the sooner that this matter is remedied the sooner this classification can be removed. 'There may be some concern among the public on seeing the words "contaminated land", but we have understood that discharges from it are very slight, if at all, and have been well contained. 'We also know that many of the businesses established at Shutterton have invested significantly in their own sites. 'We do not believe that there is any immediate cause for the public to be concerned.'