GEOEDUCATION – A Desk Study Could Save You £££££s

Developers spending millions of pounds on large sites ignore environmental desk studies at their peril, and could face punishing delays or hefty costs for the sake of spending as little as £900 on a ‘peace-of-mind’ strategy.

That is the warning from HBPW Geo-environmental Engineer, Elin Griffiths, who says that clients and contractors are missing a key part of the development jigsaw, if they fail to include geotechnics at an early stage in the process.

“A Phase 1 Desk Study, or Preliminary Risk Assessment (PRA), is a low cost, high value service which helps identify potential geotechnical and environmental hazards early on.

“Where a development is proposed, it is the responsibility of the developer, under the National Planning Policy Framework, to ensure that issues of land contamination are appropriately considered, that where necessary, remediation takes place, and that land is deemed safe and ‘suitable for use’ i.e. the site is cleaned up to a level appropriate to its proposed end use,” said Elin.

However, whilst many Local Authorities specified the need for a desk study as part of a planning condition, the reality was that they were sometimes overlooked, leading to unnecessary costs or delays further down the line.

“Typically, a PRA includes a review of public register data, including historical ordnance survey maps, aerial photographs and environmental sensitivity records to identify potential ‘sources’ of contamination, ‘receptors’ which may be affected by contamination (such as end users of the development, groundwater or neighbouring properties), and the ‘pathways’ by which they may be transmitted.

“From these so-called ‘Pollutant Linkages’, a Conceptual Site Model is developed to provide essential information that may be required by regulatory bodies whenever they are consulted as part of the planning process.”

But, said Elin, not all developers were fully tuned into the need for environmental desk studies.

She said that late identification of major problems, such as contamination, well into the development phase, could prove extremely costly and result in both lost time and complex remediation strategies.

“A desk study saves time and money and, by evaluating site conditions early on, PRA’s can help identify potential risks in a project’s development, enabling the appropriate management of those problems identified. A desk study will also help build up a better understanding of ground conditions beneath the site, which helps save money on potentially inappropriate and costly ground investigation, whilst also supporting the formulation of efficient design of any subsequent works.”

Want to know more? Elin can be contacted directly on 01777 869 896 or via email at e.griffiths@hbpwconsulting.co.uk.