Most developers, councils and people do not want to harm biodiversity, however, it remains threatened in the UK. National drives for new developments and affordable housing have been a major contributor for habitat and biodiversity loss within the UK. Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth in all its forms and all its interactions,...

Brighton is famous for lots of things but surfing is not one. The surf in Brighton is small and infrequent however that does not mean there is a void of impassioned surfers wanting to get in the water at every opportunity. After a long lockdown, the first really swell and surfable waves came to Brighton...

The proposed changes to Planning Use Class Order are like marmite. Some like the opportunity to repurpose and redevelop unused commercial properties for residential use. Others will see it as a carte blanche for unregulated, poor quality development. In my mind it raises the question, what is planning for? Is it unnecessary bureaucracy, or does...

Mining and stability covered in every transaction – why take the risk? Groundsure is delighted to announce the launch (on Monday 7th September) of a new suite of ground stability and mining reports:    and    Created with Mining Searches UK (MSUK) – which Groundsure acquired in January this year – GeoRisk was developed following...

The story starts around  360 million years ago in the Carboniferous period when dead plant matter in former wetlands, now known also as coal forests, decayed, accumulating enormous deposits of peat, which over time,  changed to coal.  Fast forward to 12,000 years ago and we see the earliest evidence of coal extraction, but it wasn’t...

What is an operational environmental risk? An operational environmental risk is a potential threat of adverse effects on living organisms and the environment by effluents, emissions, wastes and resource depletion arising out of an organisation’s activities1,2 resulting from inadequate or failed environmental procedures, systems or policies associated with the current land use of a site....

Network Rail Property Directorate has established that a strategic approach could drive down significant unplanned liabilities caused by waste tipping and poor operational management by tenants. In some instances, remediation could run into millions. To address this the client commissioned Groundsure to develop a system which could identify sites at most risk from a variety...

Since March 2020 an interpretive assessment of mine entries is included as standard in the Groundsure CON29M Official Coal Mining Search, for no extra charge. This enhancement removes the need for a costly follow-up report and potential delay to a transaction. Read on for some background to the development – and the odd mining pun,...