§ Lord Sefton of Garstonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it is true, as stated by the designer of the Dome Exhibition, that one cannot dig down on the site of the Dome because of contaminated land, when the Government had said that the site had been cleared. [HL1345]
§ Baroness HaymanIt is necessary to exercise caution when digging down into any site which has been subject to major remediation works. The Greenwich site has been reclaimed by British Gas and English Partnerships to a fit for use standard. The site is safe for the proposed use but this does not imply that all contaminated material has been removed.
The depth of contamination on the site to be occupied by the Millennium Dome varied widely. The treatment applied to each part of the site depended on the type and depth of the contamination.
The approach to the treatment of the site has been approved by both the Environment Agency and the London Borough of Greenwich and is consistent with government policy on the treatment of contaminated land.