Land having former industrial use, and some other sites, may have been contaminated to some extent. Through the planning process, when such site are developed, conditions will be applied to ensure that the site will be made fit for its intended use.

For sites which are not being developed but which present a risk of contamination to neighbours, users and occupiers, there is a system for finding and cleaning them up (remediation). This is under Part IIa of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.  The Council has completed its identification of potential contaminated land and has prioritised 154 sites for further investigation. See the Contaminated land inspection strategy (1.14MB, PDF) document for more information. The Strategy was reviewed in early 2015 and the current version formally adopted on 1st July 2015.