Innocent people may get landed with clean up bills for pollution they did not cause [1]. While FOE welcomes the Expo's efforts to highlight the technology available to tackle this problem [2], it says that the real issues are being ignored by the Government and Local Authorities: the polluter must pay for the clean up of contaminated land [3] and ordinary people must be able to find out what their homes are built on. The Government continues to deny the public access to all the relevant information on contaminated land [4].

The sale of land operates under the Buyer Beware principle but for that system to work properly information is vital [5]. Without adequate public registers people will buy houses built on contaminated land and be left to pay the consequences: possible health problems and a clean up bill or lower house values. People also have no way of knowing the potential dangers hidden in their local open spaces, schools, playgrounds, or allotments.

Adam Garfunkel, FOE Contaminated Land Campaigner, said:

"The Government must amend the Environment Bill to include comprehensive public registers. If they don't, innocent people and not the polluters will pay the price of clean up."

Paul Mason of Birmingham FOE said:

"Birmingham City Council should have the interests of local people at heart and ensure that they make all information about contaminated land available and accessible to the public."

To highlight these issues, FOE will be publishing press releases every day from Tuesday to Friday next week. FOE will be highlighting a list of ten sites in Birmingham which are likely to have potentially serious problems but for which no action is being taken by the local

CONTACTS:

PHILIP DAVIS BIRMINGHAM FOE (for local background) 0121 632 6909 PAUL MASON BIRMINGHAM FOE (for comment/interviews) 0121 632 6909

PAGE 2 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH - Pass the Parcel

authority to warn people of the dangers or to attempt to remediate the problems. Birmingham FOE has also compiled its own contaminated land register and will be demonstrating how anyone can research the history of their own property. And FOE will be highlighting how fatcat companies like British Gas, who are the principal Expo sponsors, can avoid their cleanup responsibilities while continuing to generate massive profits.

The following press releases will be made available for the dates marked:

Tuesday 23rd May BIRMINGHAM'S TOXIC TEN

Birmingham FOE will release details of ten sites which may be seriously contaminated and of which there is no record of remedial works having taken place. They include open spaces, housing sites, land for sale, playgrounds and even a hospital! FOE research has indicated that these sites could be suffering from serious contamination from heavy metals, organic compounds, and asbestos.

n.b. possible photo opportunity.

Wednesday 24th May SITE FOCUS

Today FOE will release other details of gasworks sites in Birmingham which British Gas, sponsors of the Expo, are not planning to clean up, despite their vast profits.

Also, details on how one community group in Solihull have fought Council apathy and cynical developers to highlight the dangers of building houses on contaminated land.

n.b. possible photo opportunity.

Thursday 25th May GROUNDS FOR CONCERN

Birmingham City Council, along with most other local authorities, refuses to compile a Contaminated Land Resister. Therefore, Birmingham FOE has done its own! Today, FOE will release details of its register, showing over 200 sites identified which are likely to be contaminated. This register consists of a full colour A0 map, and a computer database. This information will be made available free to the general public at Birmingham FOE's offices at Allison Street, Digbeth.

Also, a guide to how the public can do its own research! FOE will release details of how a concerned homeowner can find out about what

CONTACTS:

PHILIP DAVIS BIRMINGHAM FOE (for local background) 0121 632 6909 PAUL MASON BIRMINGHAM FOE (for comment/interviews) 0121 632 6909

PAGE 3 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH - Pass the Parcel

their house, local open space, or their children's school is built on. This includes step by step guides to information available in Birmingham Central Library (and other libraries around the country), and also what information you can demand from your local council using the Environmental Information Regulations 1992. More information is available in FOE's publication "Buyer Beware".

n.b. Possible photo opportunity at Birmingham FOE's Allison Street office.

Friday 25th May THE ENVIRONMENT BILL - WHAT LOCAL MPs THINK

FOE today releases details of its exclusive survey of Midlands MPs regarding the above Bill now before Parliament. FOE, along with The National Consumer Council and the RSPB has asked MPs to sign an Early Day Motion advocating much stricter Contaminated Land Registers. Many MPs who are not supporting this motion have serious contamination problems within their own constituencies. FOE, needless to say, will be highlighting these sites today!

All these press releases will be released with an embargo at least one day before the dates shown. To discuss any of these stories before their release, please contact Birmingham FOE.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. Contaminated land is any land which has potentially dangerous levels of toxins left as a result of human activity. It encompasses a wide variety of sites from landfill sites, gasworks, sewage works or factories, especially chemical or metal works. Contaminants can include heavy metals such as mercury or cadmium, organic toxins, landfill gases, viruses, bacteria, or explosive gases. They can be the cause of a wide variety of problems ranging from skin rashes to workers on sites, to cancers and birth defects in local residents. There are estimated to be over 100,000 potentially contaminated sites in the U.K, from small patches of property a few hundred square metres in extent, to vast stretches of land covering hundreds of hectares. There is currently little that can be done to force those responsible for cleaning these sites to clean them up. Householders unfortunate enough to buy houses on contaminated land have no redress. The law says "Caveat Emptor" - let the buyer beware!

CONTACTS:

PHILIP DAVIS BIRMINGHAM FOE (for local background) 0121 632 6909 PAUL MASON BIRMINGHAM FOE (for comment/interviews) 0121 632 6909

PAGE 4 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH - Pass the Parcel

2. The International Land Regeneration Expo '95 is being held on a former gasworks at Saltley in Birmingham between the 23rd and 25th May 1995. This will be the world's biggest conference to focus on the issue of remediating contaminated land and will be the focus of considerable national and international interest. It is being organised by the West Midlands Business Environment Club based in Aston Science Park. The principal sponsors are British Gas Properties, which inherited 1150 potentially polluted former gas production sites at privatisation in 1986. The other sponsors are English Partnerships, the statutory urban regeneration agency which administers a development budget of o250 million, and the National Rivers Authority, guardians of the water environment.

3. Section 1 paragraph 25 of This Common Inheritance states:

"That is called the "polluter pays" principle which the Government, in common with many other Governments, adopts."

However the Environment Bill currently before Parliament fails to establish clear liability.

4. The Government says that the public has a right to information about their environment. Announcing the publication of the first consultation paper on contaminated land registers on 8 May 1991, Tony Baldry, the Junior Environment Minister stated:

"We all know that the best starting point for assessing contaminated land, and establishing what we need to do about it, is to know how much there is and where it is. Such information is essential when there is concern over the threats to public health and the environment. To satisfy the need for this information, the Government introduced Section 143 of the Environmental Protection Act. This places a duty on local authorities to compile and maintain registers of land which may be contaminated."

This section of the Environment Protection Act is to be repealed by the Environment Bill and replaced with less comprehensive public registers.

5. Paragraph 32 of Let the buyer be well informed - Recommendations of the Conveyancing Standing Committee of the Law Commission - December 1989 states:

"In order to promote co-operation, sellers must be persuaded to recognise that buyers have an inescapable need for information about the property."

CONTACTS:

PHILIP DAVIS BIRMINGHAM FOE (for local background) 0121 632 6909 PAUL MASON BIRMINGHAM FOE (for comment/interviews) 0121 632 6909