We make sure developments involving contaminated land are carried out properly.

We do this:

• Through the planning and building standards process
• By giving general information and advice to applicants and developers

We can give advice about a new development, redevelopment or change of use on land that may have been affected by contamination by a former industrial or agricultural use.

Contamination issues can be complicated and could have a major impact on your development. Please contact us as early as possible if you have any questions.

We cannot act as consultants on your development, for example by interpreting facts or advice.

Legally you can request information about contaminated land from us. 

This service is often used by environmental consultants, solicitors and home buyers and we may charge for this information.

If the information is sensitive, we will ask the owners of the land for permission to release the information to you.

Please send your request by letter or email:

Contaminated Land Team
Falkirk Council
Falkirk Stadium
4 Stadium Way
Falkirk
FK2 9EE

You should include:

• A site map clearly showing the boundary of your site
• Any questions you may have
• Your contact details so we can respond to you

This will help us make sure we can give you information specific to the land you are interested in.

We aim to respond to you within 20 working days, or 40 working days if your enquiry is complicated, of receiving your request.

We encourage you to work with an environmental consultant. However, we can’t recommend any individuals or companies.

If you have to carry out intrusive investigations, you will also need the services of a drilling contractor and analytical laboratory.

You must be satisfied that your consultant is suitably qualified to carry out any investigations you may need.

You can do this by:

• Checking our Statutory Planning Guidance for the minimum requirements we need from investigation reports and asking your potential consultant about the content of their reports
• Asking to see the types of report your consultant produces

You can find contact details for environmental consultants in local trade directories, Yellow Pages and the Ends Directory.

You must consider contamination issues early in the development process. You must consider these issues before work begins on site. This is because the results of your investigations may affect your design features, delay the works or add to your costs.

For example, you may need to:

• Upgrade water supply pipes
• Install gas and vapour protection measures
• Upgrade concrete used for foundations
• Remove contaminated material from the site and bring in new material, for example, soil

To save time and money, these investigations are sometimes carried out at the same time as a geotechnical investigation.

We advise applicants and developers about land contamination matters in planning issues. You should contact Development Management for all planning enquiries or issues.

We may review any reports that accompany a planning application, but all this information must be sent to Development Management, not to us.

You can contact Development Management:

You can also write to them at:

Development Management
Falkirk Council
Falkirk Stadium
4 Stadium Way
Falkirk
FK2 9EE

Anyone who is involved in developing former industrial or agricultural land must consider contamination issues carefully.

If you are a developer or a planning applicant, you are responsible for making sure a site that may be affected by contamination is suitable for its intended use.

You must be able to show that you have considered how contamination could affect your development. You should do this by carrying out any appropriate investigations detailed in our Statutory Planning Guidance (SPG) (PDF, 794KB).

If a development requires a building warrant, a land contamination assessment may be required. If the development has gone through the planning process, in most cases the information submitted will be enough to satisfy the Building Standard requirements.

The Scottish Government encourages the reuse of land which may be affected by contamination. For more information, you can read their guidance on the development of contaminated land.

Our Statutory Planning Guidance (SPG) (PDF, 794KB) provides guidance to developers, planning applicants and consultants interested in developing potentially contaminated sites.

This Supplementary Planning Guidance includes:

• The minimum information that we will accept for contaminated land reports submitted in support of a planning application
• What is required for reports at each stage of the contaminated land process
• Checklists you can download to use in your reports

If a planning application is made for a site of current or historical agricultural use, the planning applicant should complete and submit our agricultural questionnaire as part of the planning process.

• Agricultural questionnaire (PDF, 20KB)

Our inspection programme could affect you if you are:

• A home owner or occupier
• A landowner
• Selling or buying property or land

We can give you advice about a new development, redevelopment or change of use on land that may have been affected by contamination by a former industrial or agricultural use.

This could affect you if you are:

• A developer
• Planning to build on previously developed land
• Buying or selling a property built on previously developed land