Lewes District Council has become the first local authority to support a proposed new law that calls for greater protection from contaminated land.
The Sussex authority backed a motion put forward by councillor Imogen Makepeace, who described current regulations on toxic waste disposal as ‘dangerously inadequate’.
The motion follows the death of 7-year-old Zane Gbangbola in 2014 when his home in Thameside, Surrey was flooded.
It says Zane’s father was paralysed in the same incident, adding that it is understood that flood water passing through a former landfill site carried hydrogen cyanide (HCN) into the family’s home.
An inquest concluded that Zane was killed by carbon monoxide from a petrol pump bought to clear floodwater from his home. However, his parents dispute this.
The council motion says HCN was detected at high levels by fire services on the night of the tragedy, and that the issue is expected to be the subject of an independent inquiry.
Proposals under ‘Zane’s Law’ include a duty for all relevant councils to keep a local register of potentially contaminated land, and for a full, publicly available national register to be compiled by the Environment Agency.
The measures also include a duty for councils to remediate land that poses harm to public safety or pollutes controlled waters, with the Government responsible for providing new funding.
Cllr Makepeace said: 'I was pleased and moved by Lewes District Council voting unanimously to back my motion calling for Zanes’s Law to be introduced.
'I hope other councils will follow and require the Government to reinstate environmental protections surrounding contaminated land, so that no other family need experience the tragedy that befell Zane Gbangbola.'
