History
The site had been in the ownership of Clariant Chemicals since 1970, and used predominantly as a tank storage facility for oil-based products. Although well managed by Clariant Chemicals, previous site owners from the 1950s onwards had not been as diligent, resulting in high levels of oil-based product contained within the soils and ground water
Aware of the historic liability, Clariant commenced a series of investigations to determine the extent of this legacy prior to marketing the site for disposal
It was extremely important to Clariant that the successful bidder had the ability, expertise and financial standing to result in both a safe transfer of environmental liability and also be capable of bringing the site back into use within the community
Through an informal tender process, Harrow Estates was chosen as the successful party to acquire the site.
Approach
This land was acquired with an outline residential development. However, the consent lacked commercialism and was not responsive to the residential market operating in the locality. In addition, no detailed progress had been made in dealing with this heavily contaminated site, despite numerous reports over many years
Led by Harrow’s technical team, a detailed remediation strategy was prepared and submitted together with development platforming proposals to the Local Planning Authority
Having acquired the site in 2004, Harrow’s technical team commenced work on preparing a detailed remediation strategy together with platforming proposals to the Local Planning Authority
In parallel with the above remediation application, a more detailed residential proposal was submitted seeking to increase the capacity of the site
Both applications were subsequently approved, the outcome of which was consent for 350 residential units capable of multi-phased implementation
In 2008 a consent for a further 42 units was achieved for an adjacent land parcel which had been aquired to promote comprehensive development.
Status
Post remediation Groundwater monitoring is now complete at the site and the Environment Agency have accepted the site no longer poses a significant risk to groundwater and evnironmental sign-off has been achieved from Urban Vision on behalf of Salford City Council.
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