PROTECTING the health of future generations -- that's the aim of St Helens Council's future draft strategy to deal with polluted land resulting from the town's industrial legacy.

The council is putting the strategy out for public consultation with the message 'your views matter'. The document is available for public viewing at Wesley House, Corporation Street and local libraries.

Once comments have been received, they will be collated and taken into consideration when preparing the final strategy which will be adopted by the council. Comments need to be in by Monday, May 28.

The council has responsibility to inspect land in the borough and, where appropriate, clean it up. Its four main tasks are:

To establish who should bear responsibility for improving the land.

To decide, after consultation what remedial work is needed.

Where a notice is served or the local authority carries out the work, to determine who should bear what proportion of the costs of the work.

To record work regarding regulatory actions on a public register.

But the council points out it will take many years of work to tackle the problems resulting from centuries of mining, chemical and copper industries. A key role in drawing up the strategy has been the liaison and communication with statutory bodies, land owners, occupiers and other interested parties. This consultation will continue. The strategy results from land legislation introduced last year within the Environmental Protection Act.

The legislation is to ensure that remedial action is taken only where contamination presents an unacceptable risk to health or the wider environment. Before this legislation there was no strategic approach to identifying contaminated land within the council's area.

The council strategy is to be submitted to the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions by July. It will set out the ways in which the council will inspect problem sites, particularly identifying the most serious and pressing problems first and concentrating the resources on areas where contaminated land is most likely to be found. Progress will depend upon the resources available.