Councils vote to support campaign for greater transparency over contaminated land and waters following death of child
Brighton and Hove City Council and Adur District Council have voted to support the campaign for Zane’s Law, which would ensure councils keep public registers of land that may be contaminated.
Lewes District Council was the first local authority to back the proposed law, voting unanimously in support in February.
The campaign was launched after the death of seven-year-old Zane Gbangbola in 2014, during River Thames flooding at Chertsey in Surrey.
Floodwater passing through a nearby historic landfill site conducted hydrogen cyanide gas (HCN) into Zane’s home, where it was later detected at high levels by Surrey Fire and Rescue Services.
‘Zane’s Law’ seeks to address the issue, aligning the UK with “global best practice” for the proper protection of communities from hazardous land, and reinstating legislative provisions removed by governments from the 1990 Environment Protection Act.
Zane’s Law proposes that the following measures be “vigorously pursued” in the UK:
- Every local authority must keep a full, regularly updated Register of Land that may be contaminated within their boundary.
- The Environment Agency must keep a full, public National Register of Contaminated Land to be regularly updated by information from local authorities.
- The Registers of Land must be accessible and available for inspection by the general public. Relevant local authorities must fully inspect any land registered that may be contaminated and must fully remediate or enforce remediation of any land which poses harm to public safety, or which pollutes controlled waters.
- Relevant local authorities must be responsible for inspecting previously closed landfill sites and fully remediating them, or enforcing their remediation, when they pose a risk of significant harm to people or controlled waters.
- The Government must take full responsibility for providing the necessary funds for local authorities to meet these new requirements, following the ‘polluter pays’ principle: to recover costs as appropriate where those responsible for the pollution can be identified.
In February, MPs called for an Independent Panel Inquiry into the death of Zane Gbangbola. The motion has been signed by 34 Members.
The campaign and petition for Zane’s Law, addressed to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Barclay, and the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has now received more than 3,300 signatures.
A Government spokesperson said: “This is a tragic case and our thoughts remain with the Gbangbola family. Throughout the inquest the Environment Agency provided detailed evidence to assist the independent coroner in reaching his conclusions.”
Lottie Winson
