MORE than 2,000 potentially contaminated land sites have been identified during an initial survey of Darlington.

The borough council has a huge job on its hands to prioritise those which need a more detailed inspection.

A report by John Buxton, director of development and environment, to a meeting of the full council on Thursday of last week, said: "Landfill sites have been given first priority because these are regarded as a high-risk land use, owing to the potential for problems with gas and leachate.

"Ninety-one have been risk assessed and, in the light of updated information, 79 remain on the priority list."

Officers were assessing the rest of the borough.

Mr Buxton said the original date for completing a strategy had proved unrealistic because of the scale of the job and the sensitive nature of the task. The method of risk assessment had also been found to be inadequate.

A new five-year work programme had been set to allow just the preliminary work to be completed.

"It is important to recognise that quality control checks, further detailed inspection and determination of the highest priority sites will not be completed," he emphasised.

It was impossible to set a completion date without knowing what kind of complications officers would uncover. To date, none had been given a "contaminated" label.

Coun Jim Ruck said he understood that industrial and waste disposal sites would be monitored, but what about domestic land? Were people going to be told about any hot spots?

Coun Stephen Harker, community protection cabinet member, said the authority had to follow national guidance.

"In many ways there are constraints about how we do this. We are not in a position to make comments yet, but we don't have any parcels of land that fall into the worst category," he said.

"We will have to wait until the work has been done before we can make any comments about which are the worst areas."