Pollution

Air Quality

We produce regular reports on the quality of air in Derbyshire Dales. In order to help us to do this we carry out routine monitoring throughout the district for a number of common air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, lead and dust. Please view our Air Pollution pages for more information, and for copies of the reports and summaries of our monitoring.

Pollution Prevention and Control

The Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000 were replaced in April 2008 by the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007.

Certain types of industrial and agricultural processes have been designated as requiring permits to operate due to their potential to give rise to pollution.  Some processes are permitted by the Environment Agency  and some are permitted by the Council.

Officers from our team are responsible for drawing up the permits and for setting permit conditions to ensure that the potential to pollute is properly managed and controlled. Advice and assistance is offered to businesses to help them to comply with the legislation.

Contaminated Land

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 gives us reponsibility to deal with contaminated land issues. To help us to do this we have adopted a Contaminated Land Strategy, which sets out the most likely sources of contamination and assists us in setting our priorities.

We also advise our Planning colleagues and developers in ensuring that "brownfield development" is undertaken in such a way that contaminated land does not become a problem.

Please see our Contaminated Land pages for more information.

Statutory Nuisance

We investigate complaints of statutory nuisance, such as noise, smoke, dust and odours. These complaints may arise from industrial, commercial or residential premises. The most common complaints we receive are about noise and for further information on this please view our noise page.

Hazardous Waste

We can help to respond to incidents of hazardous waste dumping or spillage. As a team we may be able to initiate legal action against people or companies causing these problems and we can also help to facilitate the removal of dumped material.

Asbestos

We can offer advice on all aspects of exposure to and the removal of asbestos from buildings etc. We can also help to identify suitable contractors for sampling and removal of materials containing asbestos.

Private Water Supplies

A private water supply is any supply which is not provided by a water company, such as Severn Trent Water Ltd.  The water may come from a spring, a well, a borehole or a stream.  Every home should have a supply of good clean water to be fit for people to live in.

On January 1st 2010 the Private Water Supplies Regulations 2009 came into force.

The standards have been determined according to various factors.  For instance, where chemicals might affect health, standards have been set based on acceptable values for lifetime exposure.  Some standards also allow for the nuisance value of chemicals which affect taste, odour or appearance of a supply.  Finally, some standards have been set because the presence of certain bacteria or chemicals can indicate the presence of other, more hazardous substances.

Each local authority has a responsibility for holding information on all private water supplies in its District, and the Regulations include rules dictating how often samples must be taken and what the water must be tested for.

For more information please contact Environmental Health using  the contact details given below.

Licensing

We act as a "Responsible Authority" for applications under the Licensing Act 2003 and are consulted on all applications for Premises Licences. Advice is given to applicants, licence holders, and to the Council's Licensing Team and Sub-Committee to ensure that proposals do not result in nuisance being caused to neighbours.

Planning

To prevent foreseeable pollution problems the Team offers specialist advice to the council's Planning Services Section on current planning applications. Issues that we might advice on include land contamination, noise potential and air quality implications.

For more information about any of these areas please see our specific web pages or contact us at:

Environmental Health and Housing Section
Community Services Department
Town Hall
Matlock
Derbyshire
DE4 3NN

Tel: 01629 761212
Fax: 01629 761165
email: mailto:envhealth@derbyshiredales.gov.uk?subject=Email%20re%20Pollution