Senior officials at the Environment Agency have been accused of a significant failure after they did not inform a House of Lords inquiry about three major illegal waste sites, two of which have sparked national outrage.
Omissions from Official Evidence
The cross-party Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee is conducting an investigation into waste crime across the UK. On 17 September, Environment Agency executives Phil Davies and Steve Molyneux gave evidence. When asked how many "significant" illegal waste sites existed nationally, they cited just six locations.
However, in the weeks following that session, three additional large-scale sites have been publicly exposed, all of which were known to the agency. These are a 25,000-tonne illegal dump in Wigan, a similarly sized site polluting the River Cherwell in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and a large mound of waste in Wadborough.
Scale of the Environmental Damage
The Wigan site, investigated by Sky News, saw 20 to 30 lorries per day dumping industrial waste last winter, despite repeated complaints from residents. The waste, which burnt for nine days in July, has led to local homes being infested with rats and flies.
The Kidlington site near Oxford has been described as "a death sentence for the River Cherwell" and caused national anger, leading to one arrest. Despite the severe environmental impact and public notoriety of these locations, the Environment Agency did not include them in its list of significant sites provided to peers.
Lords Demand Answers and Full Disclosure
In a letter to the Environment Agency's chair, Alan Lovell, and chief executive, Philip Duffy, the committee's chair Baroness Sheehan expressed deep concern. She stated the committee is "increasingly concerned that there may be other sites of a similarly large and environmentally damaging scale" unknown to the public.
Baroness Sheehan demanded to know:
- The progress made to remove waste from these sites.
- Why restriction notices, for example in Wigan, were not served sooner.
- A full list of other sites of comparable size.
She also conveyed her "disappointment" that the three sites "were not deemed necessary to bring to the committee's attention", while thanking journalists for bringing them to light.
This incident has amplified calls from the Lords for an independent "root and branch" inquiry into how the £1bn-a-year crime of illegal waste dumping is tackled, which they say has been "critically under-prioritised". The crime is often linked to organised criminal gangs involved in drugs and trafficking, who can make millions from the practice.
