The Environment Agency will begin work to clear a 20,000-tonne illegal waste site next to the River Cherwell in February, the UK Government has said.
Last year, around 20,000 tonnes of waste was illegally dumped over many months on a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The waste is approximately 150 metres long and six metres high.
Speaking in Parliament, Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh said the government hopes clearance will begin in February and will take ‘approximately six to nine months’.
Creagh was responding to the area’s MP, Calum Miller, who said that, despite the Environment Agency saying preparatory work to clear the site was underway, nothing appeared to have been done.
In December, the Environment Agency committed to clearing the site ‘as soon as possible’ and promised to set out details on a timeframe shortly.
Creagh told Miller that preparatory work will begin shortly and to expect further details on a timeframe for clearing the site from the Environment Agency.
Speaking in Parliament, Creagh said: “The clear-up of illegal waste sites by the Environment Agency should only be a last resort, undertaken in exceptional circumstances to protect the public and the environment.”
“In accordance with the polluter pays principle, criminals who disregard the law, undercut legitimate businesses and blight communities and the environment must pay the penalty, not us as taxpayers.”
“We do not wish to create a perverse incentive for some people to dump, or facilitate the dumping of, waste. It should be for polluters, not taxpayers, to pay the costs of clean-up.”
Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Dan Cooke, told the BBC that criminals could have made well over £500,000 from dumping the waste.
A 39-year-old man was arrested last year in connection with the illegal waste site near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
The investigation is led by the Environment Agency’s National Environmental Crime Unit in coordination with Oxfordshire County Council, Thames Valley Police, and National Highways.
