Adur looks set to join other Sussex councils in giving unanimous support for a new contaminated-land law.
At a full council meeting on March 28, Adur District Council members unanimously supported a motion in support of the law, named Zane’s Law.
The motion sees support for new national legislation around contaminated landfill sites, and a national registry of current and former landfill sites overseen by the Environment Agency.
This included recommendations for the council to adopt, including a requirement to hold a land register of current and former landfill sites in the district.
The law is named after seven year old Zane Gbangbola, who died after flooding in his Surrey home from the River Thames in 2014. His parents claim he died as a result of hydrogen cyanide gas contamination from a former landfill site behind their home, which they say was not identified until after the flooding.
An inquest into Zane’s death concluded carbon monoxide gas from a pump used to clear flood water from the home was responsible, which Zane’s father, Kye Gbangbola, said was never turned on.
Mr Gbangbola, who was paralysed in the incident, attended the meeting, telling the LDRS the issue of contaminated landfill was a ‘ticking time bomb’ in the UK.
He said the support from the council was a ‘step in the right direction for protecting people from harm’.
He said part of the campaign for Zane’s Law was about also ‘repositioning’ and enforcing existing laws, by closing loopholes in the legislation like the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The motion was brought to the council by Gabe Crisp (Green, St Nicholas) who said it was an ‘uncontentious’ issue that would help ‘clean up our area’.
She said should the new legislation be introduced, the government would need to provide adequate funding for councils and the Environment Agency to enforce it.
Cabinet Member for Communities and Wellbeing Kevin Boram (Con, Buckingham) said the issue was currently being looked at by the council, saying ‘historic sites’ used for dumping waste are of concern due to erosion from rising sea levels, and rain and flood water.
The motion will now pass to the council’s Joint Strategic Sub-Committee, or cabinet, for a final decision.
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