Babergh District Council in Suffolk has threatened to charge homeowners with the cost of cleaning up land contaminated by a 19th Century ironworks.

In the first of what may be many clean-up cases in the area, a survey for a potential home purchase uncovered the contamination by toxic waste and the council is enacting new powers to enforce the land to be de-contaminated and charge the landowner.

Suffolk has a history of small industrial users such as forges and small ironwork factories so many more people could potentially be caught by the new powers. And authorities elsewhere in the UK could legally take the same approach.

Reported in the East Anglican Daily Times, Sarah Croslandand is buying an old coach house from her mother and other relatives. But the survey turned up high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic from a former blacksmith’s forge which are harmful and must be cleaned up.

Babergh District Council has told Miss Croslandand she will have to carry out the work as the original polluters no longer exist. She says the authority has said it will carry out the work and claim the costs back when the property is sold.

Local authorities have been testing for contamination since 2001 and new laws allow the councils to charge the current landowners if the original polluters can’t be found.

Even more tiresome, the landowners will also be liable for damage caused to the area when the work is being carried out.

The new regulations introduced in 2001, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 were designed to highlight contaminated areas on former industrial land and brownfield sites that may be used for development. Now homeowners are being caught up in legislation that was not intended to catch them.

Babergh District Council environmental department has said it has yet to make a decision over Miss Croslandand’s case.