Archived News

Follow this link to read an article written by MJCA’s Managing Director and Principal Consultant Leslie Heasman titled ‘Squaring the Circle’ published in the January 2020 edition of CIWM’s Circular magazine. The article discusses the need to decide when a recovered resource is defined as having achieved ‘end of waste’ status.

Follow this link to read our February 2019 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• National Planning Policy Framework
• What a waste!
• Development of contaminated land
• Ground gas assessment
• Development of small brownfield sites
• Soil guideline values

Follow this link to read our January 2018 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• WIMBY
• British Standards
• Risk Assessment for Hydrocarbons
• Brownfield Land Registers
• Guidance on the approach to groundwater protection
• SAGTA – C4SLs
• Misclassification of waste

A newly formed working group on the classification of waste has developed a simple set of guidance notes.  MJCA are part of the working group and helped to develop the document ‘Misclassification of waste – and how you can avoid it’.  The document can be found here

Follow this link to read our August 2017 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• WIMBY
• British Standards
• Risk Assessment for Hydrocarbons
• Brownfield Land Registers
• Guidance on the approach to groundwater protection
• SAGTA – C4SLs
• Misclassification of waste

Please find a link to the note on “Misclassification of waste and how to avoid it”  published by the Environmental Services Association. This guide was developed by a waste industry group, including MJCA, to help people to avoid the errors that commonly are made.

Follow this link to read our March 2017 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• More housing on brownfield
• Unlocking brownfield development
• Contamination and archaeology
• DoWCoP update
• Asbestos – JIWG
• National Quality Mark Scheme – 2017

Leslie Heasman and Dr Mark Sudworth of MJCA provided expert technical advice to the legal team representing Recycled Material Supplies Limited (RMS) who won a landmark judgement  ([2017] EWCA Crim 58) in the Court of Appeal on 24 February 2017. The Court of Appeal was asked by RMS to consider whether the activities it conducted at its site in London comprised a site-based waste operation regulated by the Environment Agency or a site-based waste operation and a separate Part B mobile plant operation regulated by the local authority (London Borough of Newham).  The Court of Appeal ruled that RMS did not undertake a separate Part B mobile plant operation at the site and therefore the waste activities should be regulated solely by the Environment Agency.  On this basis the Court of Appeal ruled that the Environmental Permit for Part B mobile plant issued by London Borough of Newham was invalid and consequently quashed the convictions that resulted from a prosecution brought by London Borough of Newham in 2014 for breaches of the Part B permit.  The technical advice provided by MJCA was instrumental to the defence case presented at the original trial and to the successful grounds of the Appeal.  This decision has implications for future regulation at other sites where the same activities are currently regulated by both an Environment Agency and a Local Authority Environmental Permit.

Follow this link to read our October 2016 Newsletter

Follow this link to read our September 2016 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• Post referendum – what now?
• Brownfield registers
• The current status of contaminated land in England
• Historical landfills
• National Quality Mark Scheme (NQMS) for Land Contamination Management – update
• New standards

We implement and maintain an effective Quality Management System that is designed to control the processes which affect the quality of our work and the advice that we provide. The Quality Management System is subject to regular review and is revised as and when necessary to meet changes in the needs of our company and our clients. Our current Quality Management System is in accordance with BS EN ISO 9001:2008. As part of MJCA’s commitment to providing consistently high quality advice and standards of service to our clients we are currently going through the process of making adaptions and enhancements in order to make sure that our quality management system complies with the new BS EN ISO 9001:2015 standard. All MJCA staff will be trained and have defined responsibilities for performing their duties in accordance with the new standard and our Quality Policy.

Follow this link to read our June 2016 Contaminated Land Newsletter

 This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• Environment Agency consultation news
• Environmental Quality Standards updated
• A history of groundwater protection
• Groundwater data sources

Follow this link to read our November 2015 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• Proposed Housing and Planning Bill
• Land contamination the costs of remediation
• New British Standards for site investiagtions
• ACUMEN landfill project
• New waste classification – WM3
• Proposal for more C4SLs

Follow this link to read our December 2015 Newsletter

In August 2015 the Managing Director and a Principal Consultant of MJCA, Leslie Heasman, stepped into her new appointment as a member of the Council of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Read more……

Follow this link to read our article on Development Consent Orders

New European Regulations that change the way in which waste is classified and assessed come into force across the UK on 1 June. These changes affect anyone who produces waste, particularly if their waste is likely to be hazardous. The changes include many small changes to the list of waste (also known as the EWC), major changes to the assessment of hazardous properties used by the list to classify wastes like soil and the addition of a new criteria for persistent organic pollutant. These changes affect the way that assessment and classification must be carried out for 70% of waste codes. It may also result in a change to the current classification for some wastes: a few wastes may change from hazardous to non-hazardous, and vice versa.

Follow this link to read our May 2015 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• Environment Agency audit of the DoWCoP
• Remediation of land contamination in England
• National Quality Mark scheme
• Professional standards
• Other news

Follow this link to read our article on Materials and Waste Management

Follow this link to read our article on Process Permitting

Follow this link to read our January 2015 Newsletter

Final draft guidance for draft guidance published for drilling in waste on landfill sites

As a member of the Engineering Sub-Group of the Environment Agency’s Landfill Regulation Group, MJCA have been part of the team involved in the preparation of guidance for drilling in waste on landfill sites.  The final draft guidance document was circulated in May 2014 and comprises text agreed with Environment Agency technical staff and members of the Engineering Sub-Group.

A copy of the final draft guidance may be found at Guidance for drilling in waste on landfill sites.  Once hosting arrangements for the guidance have been made it will be finalised and appropriately badged.  It is not expected that there will be any changes to the text of the guidance during finalisation.

Permitting the permanent deposit of waste on land as a recovery activity

In recent years MJCA has obtained from the Environment Agency authorisations for the permanent deposit of waste on land as a recovery activity for the provision of a range of end uses. Read more…..

Environmental Permit for a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facility

Following on from the successful planning application for the installation and operation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facility for a food manufacturing facility in Essex for which planning permission was granted by the Local Planning Authority in August 2012, MJCA obtained an Environmental Permit variation to authorise the operation of the CHP facility. Read more……

Follow this link to read our November 2014 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• Quality mark for brownfield
• Change to the DoWCoP scheme
• Housing development on brownfield land
• Existing and new soil guideline criteria
• The use of C4SLs in the planning regime

Follow this link to read our April 2014 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on contaminated land news covering the following topics:

• Contaminated Land Capital grants funding slashed!
• Category 4 Screening Levels published
• Initial Observations of Defra’s Contaminated sites in Europe
• Progress on the management of contaminated sites in Europe
• Site Waste Management Plans scrapped
• EA to introduce pre-application charging

Follow this link to read our 2013 Anniversary Newsletter

Follow this link to read our August 2013 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on Contaminated Land News covering the following topics:

• Category 4 screening level update – further progress on the C4SLs
• The State of Nature – protecting wildlife on brownfield land
• New standard for ground gas assessment – British Standard published
• Revised waste classification – rWM2 published
• SPoCW and SPoSPoCW – EA guidance on the pollution of controlled water
• National panel of experts – now up and running

Follow this link to read our March 2013 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on Contaminated land News covering the following topics:

•  What happened 30 years ago in contaminated land?

•  The Taylor Review – Lord Taylor’s report on the review into Government planning practice guidance

• GP3 – Groundwater Protection: principles and Practice

Follow this link to read our March 2013 Newsletter

Application for a Material Recycling Facility and Gasifier

MJCA have been involved in the preparation and submission of an application for the installation and operation of a materials recycling facility adjacent to an existing non hazardous waste landfill site in Oxfordshire. Read more…..

Follow this link to read our November 2012 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on Contaminated Land News covering the following topics:

• Contaminated land Part 2A – National Panel of Experts
• Waste not, want not! – The Definition of Waste: Development Industry Code of Practice
• C4SL – Category 4 Screening Levels
• Asbestos in Soil
• Background contamination

Landfill Capping using Clay sourced under the CL:AIRE protocol

MJCA have recently completed the design, specification and supervision of the placement of a low hydraulic conductivity clay cap at a former landfill at Hithermoor Quarry in Surrey. Read more…

Follow this link to read our July 2012 Contaminated Land Newsletter

This newsletter provides an update on Contaminated Land News covering the following topics:

• Contaminated land and planning, where are we now? The National Planning Policy framework
• New statutory guidance for contaminated land – revised Part 2A guidance
• Sink or swim? – new technical guidance in the NPPF, new EA guidance and National Standards for SuDS
• Geochemical data for soils – new BGS study

Follow this link to read our February 2012  Contaminated Land Newsletter.  

Here is a link to our July 2011   Contaminated Land Newsletter 

Here is a link to our June 2011 Briefing Note on the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU

MJCA Quarry Management Magazine May 2011 Article – ‘Unspoiling the Environment’ Sustainable quarry restoration using colliery spoil extractive waste  

Recently the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 came into force. The changes in the regulations mean that many activities which were previously exempt from the need to have an Environmental Permit will no longer be able to benefit from the use of the exemptions. The following briefing note outlines one of the mechanisms by which materials may be re-used without the benefit of an Environmental Permit. Here is a link to our Briefing Note

MJCA secured recently on behalf of a client surrender notices issued by the Environment Agency for two Environmental Permits for adjacent inert waste landfill sites. Read more……. 

Here is a link to our June 2010 briefing note on the Mining Waste Directive. Including update November 2010   Mining Waste Directive 

To facilitate mineral extraction in the extension at Tarmac’s Durnford quarry a meadow of speicies rich neutral grassland of high conservation value had to be translocated to a new site at Aston Hill.  MJCA prepared detailed specifications and method statements to accommodate the move.  Over 100,000 turves were relocated all of which are alive and thriving today …. a translocation success!