Membership and Account Terms and Conditions
Effective 12 May 2025
- Introduction
This is an agreement between you (the “Member” or “you”) and CONTAMINATED LAND:APPLICATIONS IN REAL ENVIRONMENTS (“CL:AIRE”, “we” or “us”).
We are a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company number 3740059 and have our registered office at Reading Business Centre, Fountain House, Queens Walk, Reading, England, RG1 7QF. We are a registered charity with registered charity number 1075611.
Together with our Website Terms of Use, our Website Privacy Policy and our Cookie Policy, these terms and conditions form the agreement between you and us. When you complete the membership application process, you agree to be bound by all the terms and conditions of this agreement.
Additional terms and conditions or privacy policies may be applicable from time to time, for example the terms and conditions relating to a particular venue or location. We will always let you know if this is the case.
We recommend that you print a copy of these terms, our Website Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and our Cookie Policy for future reference. If you purchase goods or services (including training courses) from our website, our terms and conditions of supply will apply to the sales.
- Changes to these terms and conditions
We may make reasonable changes to these terms and conditions from time to time. We will try, but are not obliged, to provide you with notice of any changes by email.
3. Types of membership
3.1 Principal
- Paid for
- For businesses operating in an industry that is directly relevant to CL:AIRE’s aims
3.2 Supporter
- Paid for
- For businesses operating in an industry that is directly relevant to CL:AIRE’s aims
3.3 Local Authority
- Made available at no cost to the local authority member
- For individual local authority employees and representatives
3.4 Academic Institution
- Paid for
- For academic institution
Membership provides you with an opportunity to promote the aims of CL:AIRE at work and to be a part of a community of professionals with a common interest in those aims.
The benefits associated with each type of membership are as set out on our website at “Membership Benefits”
Membership Benefits are personal to each member organisation. This means you cannot allow someone else, outside of your member organisation, to use or take advantage of any of those Membership Benefits.
We may update and change the list of Membership Benefits from time to time, provided that the overall availability of Membership Benefits is not substantially adversely affected. For example, we may change an in-person event to an online event.
We do not guarantee that a Membership Benefit will always be available, that it will be available at any particular time or that availability will be uninterrupted.
No deduction may be made and no refund will be due where we alter Membership Benefits. We will try to give you notice of any alteration, but this might not be always be possible, for example where there has been an emergency.
If we stop providing a type of membership, we will let you know as soon as possible in advance and will give you the choice of either (a) a pro-rated refund for any amounts paid in advance but unused, and ending your agreement at the date that we stop providing that membership, or, (b) where available and appropriate, (b) transferring your membership to another type of membership.
- Starting your agreement
Your agreement with us starts immediately on the date that you complete your online membership application. The initial term of our agreement is twelve months, which may be renewed as set out in section 5 below (“Renewal”). Each twelve month period is a “Membership Year”.
- Renewal
We will email you at least two months before expiry of your current Membership Year to confirm the date that the Membership Year ends. We will send you a link to a renewal application and invite you to submit payment or request an invoice through our website. You still have 28 days to pay your invoice from the date that you submit your renewal, even if that is at the very end of your Membership Year.
Your eligibility
Membership is only available to businesses (including sole traders), local authorities and academic institutions. Membership is not available to individuals, and this is not a consumer contract.
Business members must operate in an industry that is directly relevant to CL:AIRE’s aims.
Local authority and academic institution members must have an interest consistent with CL:AIRE’s aims.
- Payments
Members agree to pay the membership fee applicable to the type of membership either by card during the online application process or, where opting to raise a purchase order, within 28 days of receipt of an invoice. If you pay online by card at the time that you make your application, we may give you a 14 day cooling off period from the date of your application, e.g. where you have purchased membership in error. You must contact us within that cooling off period for cancellation to be valid.
You must pay your membership fees whether or not you actually make use of the Membership Benefits during the Membership Year. While you owe us any payment, we reserve the right to refuse access to, or the benefit of Membership Benefits until your payments are made up to date. If any payment remains outstanding for a month or more, we may cancel your membership at our discretion.
Membership fees are payable whether or not there is any temporary interruption in the availability of Membership Benefits during the applicable Membership Year and whether or not the circumstances of the interruption were foreseeable or unforeseeable.
All amounts due under this agreement are payable to us without any set-off, counterclaim, deduction or withholding (other than any deduction or withholding of tax required by law).
- Changes to Fees and Charges
We may increase membership fees at our discretion but will try to limit any increases to no more frequently than once in any twelve months. We will display new membership fees on our website and will try to notify you by email at least two months before any change to the membership fees comes into effect. If you do not agree to the increased fees, you can opt not to renew your membership.
If you want to upgrade your type of membership, you can do so by contacting us at any time during the applicable Membership Year. You will be asked to pay the membership fee for the upgraded membership pro rata for the remainder of the current term of your membership.
If the tax treatment of membership fees changes or the rate of any applicable VAT changes we will apply any necessary taxes to membership fees on renewal and/or adjust the rate of VAT that you pay, except for payments you have already made in full before the change in the tax treatment of membership fees or rate of VAT takes effect.
- Your rights to cancel your membership
You can cancel your membership at any time on one months’ notice. If you cancel your membership for convenience, we will not be obliged to make any refund for the unused period of the Membership Year. If you cancel for cause, we will refund any fees pro rata in respect of unused full months of membership after the end of the notice period up to the end of the current Membership Year. Your rights to use or take advantage of any Membership Benefit cease immediately on termination.
- Our rights to cancel your membership
We may cancel your membership at any time on one months’ notice. We will refund any fees pro rata in respect of unused full months of membership after the end of the notice period up to the end of the current Membership Year. Your rights to use or take advantage of any Membership Benefit cease immediately on termination.
We may cancel your membership at any time without notice and without any obligation to provide you with a refund if:
- you cease to meet our eligibility criteria;
- your accreditation or registration in our Definition of Waste Code of Practice or Gas Protection Verification is terminated as a consequence of disciplinary action;
- you do anything that we, in our absolute discretion, deem brings or is likely to bring CL:AIRE or its affiliates into disrepute;
- you seriously or repeatedly breach this agreement;
- your conduct puts our employees, contractors, other members or any other person at risk, or we reasonably believe that it may do so in future;
- you don't make any payment to us when it's due and you still don't make payment within five days of our reminding you that payment is due;
- you permit any other person to use your membership in your place;
- your organisation or business ceases to exist;
- you use your membership to do anything that competes with our services, whether offering to do so, doing so, advertising or promoting competing services;
- you decline to complete any health and safety documentation or documentation required by our insurer.
- Our right to refuse applications for membership
CL:AIRE is entitled to reject applications for membership (including renewals of membership) at our discretion, whether or not you have been a member before. When this happens, we let you know as soon as possible and refund any sums you may have paid in advance. We do not have to provide any reason for refusal of membership.
- Intellectual Property
Our Website Terms of Use set out our intellectual property rights in relation to any content on our website. In addition, any booklets, pamphlets or forms made available to you on our website, and any hard copy materials or materials provided to you by email, may be printed or reproduced as reasonably necessary and provided that they are used for your internal business purposes only.
Where branding opportunities are included as Membership Benefits, permission for members to use the name or logo of CL:AIRE or any CL:AIRE initiative, as evidence of commitment to sustainable land use, must not be capable of interpretation that would cause any third party to believe that CL:AIRE approves, endorses or sponsors the member’s business or any service provided by it. CL:AIRE reserves the right to withdraw permission to use its name and logo from any member where it deems that such use is either not included in the Membership Benefits applicable to the member, or use is inconsistent with these terms or the Website Terms of Use.
If you cease to be a Principal member for any reason, you must immediately cease to represent yourself as a Principal member to any third party, including references or any permitted use of our name or logo in any promotional materials, stationary, website or other media. Your listing will be removed from the Principal member list on our website.
If you provide us with any materials (e.g. the summary of your business used in a profile listing), you grant us a fully paid-up, non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable licence to copy and modify any materials provided by you to us for the term of your membership (including any and all renewals).
- Confidentiality
You and CL:AIRE each undertake that we will not at any time disclose to any person any confidential information concerning one another’s business, affairs, customers, clients or suppliers except (a) to such of our respective employees, officers, representatives, subcontractors or advisors who need to know such information for the purposes of exercising our respective rights or carrying out our respective obligations under this agreement (and we will each ensure that such employees, officers, representatives, subcontractors or advisors comply with this provision); and (b) as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction, any governmental or regulatory authority or under a separate agreement between us relating to one of the CL:AIRE registers.
- Log-in
Your log-in details for your membership will be the same as those registered for your website account. The log-in provisions of the Website Terms of Use apply to membership log-in details in the same way as set out for account log-ins, as set out in the Website Terms of Use.
- Data Protection
How we use any personal data you give us is set out in your Privacy Policy, which can be found at the foot of our website.
- Our liability
Save as expressly stated in this section, we exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to membership.
Our liability. As you're a business, then, except in respect of the losses described in Losses we never limit or exclude:
- we shall not be liable to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, for
- any loss of profit,
- business interruption,
- loss of anticipated savings,
- loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation,
- loss of use or corruption of software, data or information, or
- any indirect or consequential loss,
arising under or in connection with any agreement between us; and
- our total liability to you for all other losses arising under or in connection with any agreement between us, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, shall be limited to the total sums paid by you for membership in the then current Membership Year.
Losses we never limit or exclude. Nothing in these terms shall limit or exclude our liability for:
- death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors (as applicable);
- fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
- breach of the terms implied by section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 or section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982; or
- any matter in respect of which it would be unlawful for us to exclude or restrict liability.
- Events beyond our control
If we are unable to provide all, or substantially all, of our Membership Benefits for thirty consecutive days or more, for reasons or events beyond our reasonable control, you or we can cancel your agreement immediately by written notice.
We will not be responsible for any failure to provide or delay provision of any Membership Benefit that is caused by any act or event beyond our control.
If an event outside our control takes place that affects the provision of Membership Benefits, we will contact you as soon as it is reasonably possible to do so. Our obligation to provide any Membership Benefits will be suspended and any time period within which we have committed to provide a Membership Benefit will be extended for the duration of the event outside our control.
If you opt to cancel your membership due to an event outside our control, we will refund you the membership fee pro rata in respect of unused full months of membership after the end of the notice period up to the end of the current Membership Year.
- Assignment
This agreement is personal to you and the benefit of this agreement may not be assigned by you to any other person or entity.
We can transfer our agreement with you, so that a different company is responsible for your membership. We'll tell you in writing if this happens and we'll ensure that the transfer won't affect your rights under this agreement.
- Rights of third parties
This agreement is between you and us. Nobody else can enforce it and neither of us will need to ask anybody else to sign-off on ending or changing it.
- Invalidated terms
If a court invalidates some of this agreement, the rest of it will still apply. If a court or other authority decides that some of these terms are unlawful, the rest will continue to apply.
- Delays in enforcing terms
Even if we delay in enforcing this agreement, we can still enforce it later. If we don’t immediately chase you for not doing something (like paying) or for doing something you're not allowed to, we are not prevented from doing it at a later time.
- Governing law and jurisdiction
This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes relating to your membership and/or this agreement which we are unable to resolve between us will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.