Waste crime is completely unacceptable. We are working tirelessly with compliant businesses, operators and partners to protect our environment and communities from waste crime. We will always take decisive action to investigate and work with police to bring perpetrators to justice.
In Kidlington, Oxfordshire, we share the public's disgust at the large-scale dumping of illegal waste. This blog sets out what we've done, what we're doing now, and how you can help us bring those responsible to justice.
Our immediate response
In response to evidence from the public, our officers and partner organisations attended the site on 2 July. At this point we confirmed it as a high-risk illegal waste site requiring urgent action.
When the risk of further dumping emerged, we secured a court order to close the site to prevent more waste from being illegally tipped.
Following that order, we closed access to the site and there has been no further dumping on the site.
Unfortunately, the majority of the waste was tipped before we became aware. Once we were notified, we acted swiftly.
Our ongoing work
We're working closely with our partners to tackle this incident head-on. Multi-agency coordination is essential in situations like this and the Environment Agency is overseeing the joint response. On 19 November we convened Cherwell District Council, Thames Valley Police and National Highways to ensure a unified approach to protecting the local environment and addressing community concerns. This partnership ensures every agency brings its full capabilities to bear on the problem.
Let's be absolutely clear: we have the resources, expertise and determination to deal with this situation effectively. Any suggestion otherwise is completely inaccurate and misleading. The Environment Agency is the nation's environmental regulator with decades of experience handling complex environmental incidents.
Our specialist teams remain on the ground at the site, conducting rigorous assessments of risks to the River Cherwell, monitoring environmental impact, and taking immediate action where needed. We will continue this intensive monitoring and enforcement work until the site is secured, and any environmental damage is addressed.
This week (w/c 24 November), we are installing large sandbags between the waste pile and river as an additional barrier and securing the site with Heras fencing to prevent entry to this active crime scene.
Criminal investigation
The investigation is being led by our National Environmental Crime Unit, which is staffed by highly skilled waste crime investigators. On 25 November an Individual was arrested in connection with Kidlington illegal waste dumping.
We have a strong track record of successfully bearing down on criminals which includes stopping activity at 743 illegal waste sites in the past year. We are confident we’ll track down those responsible for the waste dumped at Kidlington.
We cannot commit to a timeline for when the waste will be cleared but as a matter of principle we believe that those who pollute - rather than taxpayers - should cover the costs of clean up.
However, we are reviewing options for site clearance. This is not a quick process as, unlike the criminals that dumped it there, we have to ensure this vast amount of waste is handled correctly, moved to the right facilities and is done so without causing further damage to the environment.
How you can help
Information from the public is critical to holding waste criminals to account.
If you have any information about this site or suspect illegal waste activity anywhere, please call our 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 807060. You can also report information to call crime stoppers via their website Independent UK charity taking crime information anonymously | Crimestoppers.
We’re aware of people wanting to see the site for themselves. It’s a live crime scene which is covered by a restriction order. It’s not legal or safe to be there.
Visiting not only hampers our investigation but also causes further harm to the environment as waste underfoot gets compacted into the ground or dispersed further.
Factual corrections
There have been some false reports in the media and online about some of our response. We’d like to set the record straight on this:
All EA did was put a sign on the gate. It has been too slow to find the culprits - Not true. When the site was reported to the Environment Agency, we launched a criminal investigation to find those responsible, closed the site to prevent further dumping and continue to monitor the area for environmental harm.
Dumping continued after we closed the site on 23 October - Not true. We have no evidence of more waste dumped at the site since 1 October.
EA is too busy to deal with this among all its other work –Not true. We have the resources, expertise and determination to deal with this situation effectively. We have stopped activity at 743 illegal waste sites in the past year.
Our wider work against waste crime
Waste crime undermines legitimate businesses and costs England's economy around £1 billion a year. We're determined to turn the tide.
In 2024/5, the Environment Agency successfully stopped activity at 743 illegal waste sites, of which 143 were high risk. Our enforcement officers also prevented nearly 34,000 tonnes of waste from being illegally exported.
Working in partnership
Since 2020, we've led the Joint Unit for Waste Crime – a multi-agency taskforce bringing together the Environment Agency, police forces, the National Crime Agency, HMRC, the National Fire Chiefs Council and devolved bodies to tackle serious and organised criminality in the waste sector.
By the end of September 2025, the work of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime led to 186 arrests.
Following the money
We've also established an Economic Crime Unit within our National Environmental Crime Unit to target the money and assets of waste criminals.
In 2024/25, we supported 21 ongoing money laundering investigations, secured 5 account freezing orders and 1 cash detention (£17.9k forfeited, £2.9 million frozen), and finalised 13 confiscation orders totalling £1.55 million.
We will continue working tirelessly with compliant businesses, operators and partners to protect our environment and communities from waste crime.
8 comments
Comment by Ian Gregory posted on
Go back to times when you could just drive to a recycle centre in your car or van without needing to book a pointless appointment.
Comment by Andy Soper posted on
Aware 3 July but site not closed until September - unacceptably slow response!!!
Comment by Os Morgan posted on
EA have been simply caught out on the job with this catastrophic crime, they were made aware of the incident when it started and did nothing to stop hundreds of tonnes being dumped when they could and should have done.
The EAs knee jerk PR reaction has been only when this has become a national press story and questions raised in PMQ's this week.
EA continues to be totally ineffective organisation simply not fit for purpose, be it the dumping of industrial waste or monitoring and prevention of millions gallons of sewage pouring into our rivers each year.
Heads should roll at the EA
Comment by Claire Robertson posted on
Between attending the site on 2nd July and closing the site on 23rd October was over 3 and a half months. Why was nothing done to contain the waste and try and prevent it spreading to the river in this time? The image shows a boom being installed on 19th November, with flood waters rising, far too late. The EA of all people must have known this waste site is on a floodplain and, the waste must be prevented from getting into the river system and polluting downstream. Thank you for clarifying things in this blog, and all power to the investigation, but questions still remain about the EA & police response, and someone should own up and be held responsible for those.
Comment by Anna posted on
We have reported evidence in regards this crime scene on your hot line, and we know many locals have been reporting it for months. Why has no one 'gotten back' about it off your hotline, until the whole world press amassed on the scene?! Please check your own records - we have been reporting all we know. No one has ever responded. Why has the public not been alerted about this environmental hazard just upstream for months? Why, if you say you were testing the water on November 19th, have you still not told us the results of those test?! Please do! Publish it here with your report! We locals have seen styrofoam, batteries and plastic waste washing downstream from this pile. Why did it take 4 months to put in a boom to prevent it all getting in the river, when the EA must know this site lies on a flood-plain.
We don't need to know about the crime investigation but we would urge you to be transparent in your findings where they affect human and environmental health. If we find it hard to trust what reads as defensive hand washing, it's because you are not engaging with the public unless forced to by the press. We are on the EA's side and want to trust the agency entrusted with our countryside! Please go through your help-line recordings. We have been trying to help you with this investigation and we would be willing to help as citizen volunteers with the clean up too. My fear is that if the media attention dies down so will your "resources, expertise and determination" to clear the site, leaving us in a mess worse than we started with in July.
Comment by Robert Parkinson posted on
Did dumping continue between 2nd July when NE were notified and 23rd October when the site was closed? The press release skirts around this question.
Comment by Max Lamb posted on
I'm unsure if your PR team is being intentionally misleading, or is simply incompetent.
But saying dumping continued for at least two months under your watch (until 1st Oct), is not the same as acting quickly.
You did put a letter on the gate, and then many months later you did shut down the site.
Your sloppy defensiveness and accusations of false news will not help you.
Maybe you did follow the correct procedures and it was the courts, police or general red tape that stopped you from acting. Make that known and do something about it!
Comment by Max posted on
I don't know if you have access to any data or expertise on water level fluctuations in the area... But that boom looks like it will be bypassed with a few inches of water level increase.