PENDLE Council's Executive has approved a Contamination Land Strategy which it is hoped will improve the quality of life of local residents.

It aims to protect health, controlled waters, and designated eco-systems, to prevent damage to property and any further contamination of land, and to encourage the re-use of brownfield land.

The strategy has been produced by the council's environmental health team based at Colne Town Hall in response to the demands of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, as amended by the Environment Act 1995.

Council leader Azhar Ali said: "The aims and objectives of the strategy are consistent with the council's Corporate Strategic Objectives of delivering successful regeneration and sustainable development in Pendle.

"Complying with this legislation will have a beneficial effect on the quality of life for residents throughout the borough."

It defines the roles that the council and Environment Agency will play in relation to dealing with cases of contaminated land, along with procedural, operational and quality control issues in applying the relevant enforcement legislation.

The next stage of the strategy is an inspection of the district and the identification of potentially contaminated sites and their prioritisation for further more detailed inspection.

It is expected the first stage of the inspection programme will take between two and three years and funding has been made available as part of the council's standard spending assessment and through the contaminated land supplementary credit approval (SCA) programme.