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The following is a report by David Churcher, Senior Research Manager, CIRIA. The purpose of the discussion was to assist both AEA Technology in their drafting and the Task Steering Group in their peer review of the characterisation guidance. The question of focus was broken down into four further questions:
The conclusions from the separate discussions can be summarised as:
The discussion about format was more wide ranging. Those attending were asked, firstly to prioritise a list of key groups of recipients of the guidance, then to assess which from a selection of delivery mechanisms would be best suited to each group of recipients. The results of this analysis are shown in the table below.
| Group of Recipients |
Favoured delivery mechanism(s) |
| Liability holders |
Report on a web site |
| Regulators |
Report |
| Consultants/contractors |
Report (could be on web site) |
| Local Authorities |
Seminars, report, training course |
| Non-governmental organisations |
Web site, seminars and networking |
| Developers |
Non-technical summaries of guidance |
| Policy makers |
Report (plus letters to Minister) |
| General public |
Web site, non-technical summaries |
In addition, to the recipients mentioned above, other groups identified were Lawyers, Bankers, Educators, Insurers, Waste management companies. Groups which also acted as conduits of guidance were Professional Institutions and Trade Associations.
The results of this exercise will bear upon the current and future work of the SAFEGROUNDS Network. In the case of the site characterisation guidance, there is limited scope for extending the range of delivery mechanisms beyond a traditional report, whether delivered in hard copy or electronically because of time and budgetary constraints. However, it was stressed that the site characterisation guidance will be interim in nature, and may well be revisited by the SAFEGROUNDS project at a later date, either to update the technical content or to repackage the guidance into a different delivery medium.
In all cases, the importance of the Internet came through, and this will be reflected in the use of this web site to carry the guidance, and to receive feedback on its use.
Although during the course of the day, many prioritisation exercises were used to focus on manageable numbers of options at each stage, none of the suggestions that were not prioritised will be forgotten.
CIRIA, WS Atkins and AEA Technology are grateful for the contributions made by all those present at the workshop, and to The Environment Council for facilitating the day.