Land can be legally identified as “Contaminated Land” by Torbay Council. This may happen where the land could cause: 

  • Significant harm to people or protected species. 
  • Significant pollution of surface waters or ground waters. 

There is more information here on who is responsible for deciding:

  • whether land is contaminated
  • who has to clean up the land
  • developing land that may be contaminated
  • buying land that may be contaminated

What we do 

We are responsible for enforcing Contaminated Land legislation. We: 

  • Respond to enquiries from the public about land contamination. 
  • Publish a Contaminated Land Strategy which says how we will identify contaminated sites in our area. 
  • Carry out reviews of land that may be contaminated. 
  • Find out who is responsible for putting right the contamination and discuss the problem with them. 
  • Formally declare land as contaminated. 
  • Agree what action is necessary to put the site right and make sure it is done. 
  • Keep a Public Register of contaminated land sites which includes any legal action that has been taken in relation to a site. 
  • Review planning applications to find out if there are any issues that need to be considered regarding contamination. 
  • In some cases the Environment Agency may take over regulation of a site from us once it has been declared as Contaminated Land. 
Contaminated Land Public Register
This register is intended to act as a full and permanent record of all the regulatory action taken by the enforcing authority in relation to the remediation of the land.

If you need more information about a particular piece of land and possible contamination, please use this form:

  Make an enquiry about contaminated land