The government estimates that 20% of waste in England is illegally managed.
In the Waste Crime Action Plan, external, launched under Keir Starmer’s administration, the government said the Environment Agency would step in “on an exceptional basis to clear sites where that waste presents an untenable risk to the public and the environment”.
Private landowners whose land is used for illegal waste dumping are normally expected to pay for the clear-up.
Last week, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a nationwide crackdown on waste crime and plans to clean up three more of the largest illegal tips in England.
In total, six supersites have been earmarked to be cleared using public money, but they will be assessed first. They are:
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Power Station Road – Isle of Sheppey, Kent
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Aymer Close – Runnymede, Surrey
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Midland Road – Bradford, West Yorkshire
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Alan Ramsbottom Way – Hyndburn, Lancashire
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Worthing Road – Sheffield, South Yorkshire
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Bolton House Road – Bickershaw, Greater Manchester
Environment secretary Dame Angela Eagle said: “After years of waste crime being allowed to fester, we are taking decisive action.
“By putting more officers on the frontline and using drones to catch offenders in the act, we’re putting the criminal gangs on notice that there is nowhere left to hide.”
But many more illegal supersites remain – and it is not known if or when they will be cleared up, and who will be made to pay.
This includes one supersite in the countryside of Over, Gloucestershire, which Charlie Coats, chairman of Highnam Parish Council, is calling for the Environment Agency to also deal with.
He told the BBC that the amount of money taken from waste criminals was “derisory” and added: “It acts as absolutely no deterrent whatsoever because the income that they can derive from this dwarfs anything by way of any fine.”
Gavin Lane, president of the CLA, which represents around 28,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses across England and Wales – who are often left paying the cost of clean-up – also called for more to be done to make the criminals foot the bill.
“The punishment has to be real: seize their vehicles, recover the money they owe and make waste crime a losing business,” he said.
The Environment Agency told the BBC that some of the unpaid confiscation orders were outstanding “because they are still within the six-month payment period allowed for settlement” and the failure to pay was a matter for the courts.
It added that more money could still be seized if further information is uncovered about the offenders’ assets.
Four men have so far been arrested in connection with the illegal waste tip at Kidlington. All have since been released while the investigation continues.
