Inspection works, Longman Gypsy/Traveller site, Inverness
Issued: 9 Nov 2024
The Highland Council has today (Tuesday 9 November, 2024) informed residents located on reclaimed land at The Highland Council's Gypsy/Traveller site at Stadium Road, Inverness of the outcome of a recently completed site investigation undertaken in the area.
As part of The Highland Council's ongoing inspection programme of potentially contaminated land in the Highlands, the Council's Environmental Health Service, has been investigating the Gypsy/Traveller site over the last year.
The Council has been advised in a report by consultants that although the site is located on a former landfill site there is no unacceptable risk from landfill gases.
The report also identifies the presence of former landfill waste under a capping layer of natural soils or gravel. However, although the cap is considered to be of insufficient depth, or absent in places across the site, no immediate risk to the residents or their property has been identified.
The Council has a duty in terms of Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, to investigate areas which may be contaminated land. As part of this process it has prioritised sites for investigation where there may be a risk to people living and working in the area, to buildings or property, and to the wider environment.
The site is part of a former refuse tip/landfill estimated to have been operational between at least 1919 and 1965 based on historical maps and Council records. These records had suggested that the area was reclaimed by landfilling with various materials including commercial, municipal and burnt wastes. Landfill sites can contain substances which are harmful to human health, which include the landfill gases methane and carbon dioxide.
The Highland Council appointed consultants RPS Planning & Development Limited to carry out the inspection which commenced in November 2024, and the final consultants report on the findings has now been received.
The inspection included the installation of a number of boreholes for soil testing and groundwater and soil gas monitoring around the Gypsy/Traveller Site.
The report has recommended that to determine whether significant pollution of the water environment is occurring from the former waste that a study of the wider area will be necessary.
The Council will be looking at these land condition results and considering the future use of the site and the surrounding areas.
Although no immediate risk has been identified from the garden soils or the communal area, the council has asked residents not to grow or eat garden produce; limit digging in their gardens or communal areas, and to wash their hands following contact with soils and waste.
The Council is keen that anyone with any concerns or queries regarding the inspection works at the Longman Gypsy/Traveller site contact Environmental Health, Contaminated Land staff who will be able to take their details and arrange for responses to their questions, on Tel: 01463 228746.
