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As the global climate undergoes rapid and unprecedented changes, the frequency and severity of flood events in the United Kingdom are due to increase. In the first two weeks of November 2019, the UK received a huge deluge of rain, which resulted in widespread river and surface water flooding. Subsequently, the Environment Agency (EA) issued...
This case study provides an interesting example highlighting how timely and pragmatic Groundsure advice can help our customers achieve a substantially better outcome. Despite physical risks at the property being identified, it was not considered that these necessitated immediate or prioritised action. However, the perception of risk between the vendor and purchaser created a situation...
Japanese knotweed has risen in prominence recently, you may have even read my 2018 blog post on the subject), it is often maligned by solicitors, surveyors and lenders as public enemy number one, and still regularly sees articles written in the mainstream media eg, The Telegraph (2019), The Independent (2019) and The Express (2019). However,...
The Groundsure team gathered at Brighton station at 6:30am on a sunny Wednesday morning. Coffee and breakfast pastries purchased, we were ready to board our train to Southampton where we would be spending the day with James MacTavish at Ordnance Survey (OS), as part of Groundsure’s Customer Day programme. Upon arrival at the OS building...
The UK has a long history of intensive production and farming. In fact, farming is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, which contributes almost £122 billion to the country’s economy while providing 61% of the food eaten in the UK1. With farming being such big business it is not surprising that farmers along with the government...
This year I was lucky enough to book myself in with a visit to the British Geological Survey (BGS) for my Customer Day. Going in I hadn’t heard much about BGS beyond the data they supplied to Groundsure, but this was soon to change. Our first stop was the main reception where we met Gerry,...
Halloween is nearly upon us, and bringing with it thoughts of ghosts, skeletons and spooky cemeteries. Graveyards have long been considered scary places thanks to the corpses beneath our feet, but probably not because of the contamination risk they can pose to groundwater. A body might seem harmless (zombies excepted), but for those of us...
Beginning in September 2018 a study was commissioned by the Scottish Government, and undertaken by consultancy RSK Stirling, to investigate the prevalence of carbon dioxide from disused mineral mines and the implications for residential buildings1. On 5th September 2019 the Scottish Government made the results of the study available. The investigation considered past incidents involving...
There isn’t a secure definition of clean beauty. Words like ‘natural’, ‘green’ and ‘hypoallergenic’ can be connected to the concept. However, without a standard, it can be ambiguous and open to misuse. In addition, chemical free doesn’t apply because all beauty product ingredients are derived from chemicals, either from nature or man-made (Burney. E). The...