Euro ruling could lay waste to UK's brownfield plans

Last month's European Court of Justice ruling (see Physical Regeneration News, p11 and Feature p20), has implications which horrify brownfield developers and remediators: contaminated sites, they fear, may be reclassified as hazardous waste dumps. Yet their confusion cannot be wholely blamed on this decision: Britain's remediation 'system' was already hopelessly tangled, and the ruling merely adds a new layer of uncertainty. If the Government does not move fast to simplify on-site remediation, the regeneration of brownfield sites will be severely handicapped.