In a once scenic ancient woodland outside Ashford, an enormous biohazard cleanup operation is under way to remove the toxic aftermath of the criminal dumping of 35,000 tonnes of rubbish.<\/p>\n
Tankers come and go along a new road, built for the purpose. Behind metal gates away from public view, specialists in hazmat suits dig through the mountain of waste dumped on an industrial scale in a woodland that is a protected site of special scientific interest.<\/p>\n
The \u00a315m cleanup of Hoad\u2019s Wood in Kent began this summer, five long years after local residents first started to complain about illegal dumping in the protected woodland. In some cases they provided the names of companies involved and footage of the activities to the police, the local authority and the Environment Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n It took a tenacious high-profile campaign by residents and environmental NGOs, and the threat of a legal class action, to force the Environment Agency to clean up the woodland after government intervention.<\/p>\n An aerial view of thousands of tonnes of illegal waste dumped within the ancient woodland, Hoad\u2019s Wood. Photograph: PA Images\/AlamyA view of thousands of tonnes of illegal waste dumped within Hoad\u2019s Wood in Ashford, Kent. Photograph: Gareth Fuller\/PA<\/p>\n But as organised criminals increase their involvement<\/a> in waste crime, labelled the \u201cnew narcotics\u201d, the scale of the environmental disaster they are creating is spreading.<\/p>\n Across the country there are another six illegal waste dumps of similar size to Hoad\u2019s Wood, or bigger, stretching from Lancashire to Cornwall, whose locations and activities are known to the Environment Agency.<\/p>\n But the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste, from household rubbish to toxic rubber, building materials and heavy metals, remain in situ with little or no prospect of any multimillion-pound cleanup in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Asbestos and household waste illegally fly-tipped overnight on a country lane in Wexham, Buckinghamshire. Photograph: Maureen McLean\/Alamy Live News<\/p>\n In some cases, hazardous, polluting waste on farmland and business estates has been there for several years. Two of the large dumps \u2013 one near Sittingbourne in Kent and one in Camborne, Cornwall \u2013 appeared more recently and are still receiving illegal waste despite the activities being known to the agency.<\/p>\n The EA says that in Kent investigations are ongoing \u201cwith a view to stopping activity\u201d, and that in Cornwall large-scale deposits have been stopped. But many argue stronger action needs to be taken much sooner by authorities to stop the dumping and prevent further environmental damage and hazards to the public.<\/p>\n In its recent inquiry into waste crime, the House of Lords environment committee found the Environment Agency was slow to respond to even the most flagrant and serious illegality, while the environment and communities suffered.<\/p>\n For many, Hoad\u2019s Wood has become a symbol of the broken system; infiltrated by criminal gangs drawn by the promise of huge illegal profits and allowed to operate with impunity.<\/p>\n \u201cBroken systems create broken results and what we need is a fundamental change,\u201d said John Russell, a Liberal Democrat peer who was a prominent campaigner for the cleanup of Hoad\u2019s Wood. \u201cI don\u2019t want us to become like Italy where some kind of mafia is controlling all of this. It feels a bit like we are using the Keystone Cops against this criminal activity. I just want a serious organised crime approach applied to the problem of serious organised crime.\u201d<\/p>\n An illegal dump site in Wigan. The local council estimates it will cost \u00a34.5m to remove the 25,000 tonnes of putrid waste. Photograph: Christopher Furlong\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Today four of the big illegal dumps known to the Environment Agency are closed and inactive. But the agency, which is the lead investigator of serious waste crime, does not have the money or the inclination to clear up the equivalent of six Hoad\u2019s Woods itself. Its tactic is to force the perpetrators to clear up their pollution. Yet even where perpetrators are arrested, and successfully prosecuted, a cleanup is far from certain.<\/p>\n In Burnley, Lancashire, the Environment Agency successfully prosecuted 77-year-old John Allison in 2021 for waste crime.<\/p>\n Allison oversaw the large-scale dumping of mixed household and commercial waste, including hazardous materials, at two sites in Colne, which reaped him illegal profits of more than \u00a3800,000. He was jailed for three years in 2021, and later ordered to pay \u00a3368,682.50 after the Environment Agency pursued him under the Proceeds of Crime Act.<\/p>\n But Allison has failed to pay up, and two years ago was sent back to prison for three years and five months<\/a> with no money recouped.<\/p>\n