About Land use planning

The chemical industry plays a major part in all our lives, but as well as benefits, it also creates hazards. The flammable, oxidising, explosive or toxic properties of the substances used and produced by the chemical industry are such that accidents involving even relatively small quantities of these materials may have the potential to cause harm to people or property, or to the environment. Where these substances are present on the scale associated with the major chemical industries, the consequences of major accidents may potentially rival those of natural disasters in terms of loss of life, injury and damage to property over a wide area. This has been demonstrated in major accidents which have occurred in the UK at Flixborough (1974) and Buncefield (2005), across Europe at Seveso (1976), Enschede (2000) and Toulouse (2001), and elsewhere, Bhopal (1984) and Mexico City (1984).

In the UK much has already been achieved through controls under the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974, and associated legislation, to reduce the likelihood of major accidents and to mitigate the consequences of those which do occur, by emergency planning and providing information to people in the surrounding area. But the consequences of major accidents can also be mitigated through land-use planning; making decisions about the location of major hazard installations and about the development of land around them.

Ideally, industries using large quantities of hazardous substances would be located far away from centres of housing and other developments which could be affected in the event of an accident. In reality, factories, housing, schools and shops have developed close to each other; indeed, in many cases these industries provide the economic heart of the local community.

On the other hand, there are pressures on the land available for development for housing, retail and public use, etc. This can lead to demands for available land around existing hazardous installations to be used for purposes, such as large housing developments or schools, which HSE does not consider to be compatible with the presence of a hazardous installation.

Greater control is possible when planning the location of new hazardous activities, but even here the options may be limited. There are few locations where new hazardous installations can be sited without creating some risk to an existing community. The UK is a small, densely populated island and such undeveloped areas as do exist are often so remote as to be economically unviable, or of such environmental value as to be unsuitable for industrial use.

All of this means that in making planning decisions about siting new hazardous installations, or the development of land around existing ones, safety is one among a number of elements to be considered by local planning authorities, albeit one that should be given great weight. A balance has to be struck between the needs of industry, the needs of the community and the interests of safety. HSE's role is to provide advice which will allow local planning authorities to make an informed decision in respect of the planning process whilst fully understanding the risks as presented by HSE.