The Environment Agency (EA) has closed down a waste site after reports of illegal dumping in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
A court order is now in place stopping anyone from importing waste on to land at Park Head Plantation in Wolsingham, inside the North Pennines AONB.
The EA said previous notices requiring the dumping to stop and the waste to be cleared were ignored.
Area environment manager Gary Wallace said so-called waste crime “scars communities and the environment”.