Spelthorne Council is considering the future use of land it owns at Short Lane, Stanwell. The land is situated between Short Lane and the Esso Depot and has potential to be used as a wildlife park, sports ground or a similar community resource.
The Council is the freeholder of this site of about 1.2 hectares of land, in the Green Belt, which has had a number of uses over the years.
It intends to investigate the land to determine whether or not there is any contamination as a result of its use as landfill during the 1950s or 1960s. There has also been significant unauthorised fly tipping on the land as recently as 2003. The site was most recently used as a sports and social ground with pitches and a clubhouse and changing rooms – both of which were demolished after an arson attack.
A limited investigation of shallow soils at the site has already been carried out. This has suggested that there is no widespread significant contamination of shallow soils, but the fires and the fly-tipping may have had localised impacts. Now further investigation is necessary to assess the levels within deeper soils and groundwater as well as the potential presence of ground gases.
A three-week long site investigation will start on1 September. Three boreholes* will be drilled to a depth of around 10m and 23 trial pits* will be dug to a level of 3m. Gas monitoring will take place at weekly intervals and soil and groundwater samples will be taken away for analysis.
Because of the presence of high pressure oil pipelines at the site, appropriate health and safety precautions will be put in place in consultation with the pipeline owners before the work starts.
Cllr Gerry Forsbrey, Portfolio Holder for the Environment said: “This site has been unused for some time and it is the Council’s intention to return it to a suitable state for community use. The investigation will give us sufficient information to be able to decide on whether, and to what extent, it may need cleaning up, the costs and the level of work involved. At the moment we are looking at a range of options for the most efficient future use of this significant piece of land”.
