AIBU to think industrial level waste dumping should be investigated and prosecuted by the police? Cherwell river environmental catastrophe.

[FannyCann]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y4dxlgkp4o?xtor=AL-71-[partner]-[bbc.news.twitter]-[headline]-[news]-[bizdev]-[isapi]&at_campaign_type=owned&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_origin=BBCNews&at_link_id=46D26226-C137-11F0-A3BE-B9383F55D6B5&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_medium=social&at_format=link&at_link_type=web_link

This environmental disaster has been created by large scale organised criminal activity - it isn’t fly tipping (which would be bad enough) it is planned illegal waste dumping on a huge scale.

From the article : “The "environmental catastrophe unfolding in plain sight" is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) high and has appeared on a site between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington.”….”criminal gangs are dumping waste on this scale" across the country and it will take government intervention before pollutants "leech out" into local rivers. The Environment Agency said it would try to "ensure those responsible" for the waste cleared it up.”

"The Environment Agency would only step in and clear this or any site if it was abandoned, had no identifiable person, or the waste posed an imminent threat to life – we operate under the Polluter Pays Principle."Thames Valley Police has said it was not currently involved in the case and the Environment Agency was leading the investigation.”

Apparently “Cherwell District Council estimated the cost of removing the waste would be greater than its entire annual budget.” Obviously it will be a mammoth task and extremely expensive to clear this waste properly (no one knows what is in there but there is likely building waste including asbestos for instance) google AI tells me the annual budget for Cherwell District Council is £26.2 million (which doesn’t seem much to me - is it a very small area?). I can easily see dealing with this mountain of toxic waste will cost many millions.

I cannot believe the police aren’t involved in investigating this and it seems unlikely the Environment agency has the resources or will to act promptly. The very idea that they would try to ensure those responsible clear it up is laughable.

One of the shocking things coming out is that this is by no means an isolated case.
“A recent House of Lords report found efforts to tackle serious waste crime have been "critically under-prioritised" despite the problem becoming bigger and more sophisticated.”

There has been a case in Kent, ongoing over several years:

"<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/KulWd/www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/shocking-pictures-of-protected-kent-woodland-turned-into-was-299599/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">KentOnline’s exclusive revelations in early 2024 showing how a vast area of the protected woodland off Bethersden Road had been transformed into a “disgusting” wasteland.Mountains of waste had been dumped across four acres of the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).Unscrupulous criminals left behind rubble and building debris piled 12ft high in the ancient forest, which is home to nightingales, woodpeckers and rare moths.”

“It says Hoad’s Wood highlights a “fundamentally broken system” for tackling waste crime.
The letter describes how 30,000 tonnes of waste were illegally dumped, including hazardous materials such as asbestos and heavy metals, with hydrogen sulphide gas detected. It reveals the clean-up costs are expected to reach £15 million.
Committee chair Baroness Sheehan said: “Despite the scale and seriousness of the crimes, raised by the members of the public in many cases, we have found multiple failings by the Environment Agency and other agencies from slow responses to repeated public reports (as in the case of Hoad’s Wood, Kent) through to a woeful lack of successful convictions.

Speaking to KentOnline yesterday, Baroness Sheehan said: “What happened at Hoad’s Wood is beyond belief, really. It has statutory protections and there were failings from the Environment Agency, the police, the local authority, Natural England - who one would have thought would have been very protective of a SSSI site - and the Forestry Commission.
“The reports were made to all these authorities and there was a lot of buck passing going on. Nobody was willing to take responsibility, which I find absolutely incredible.”

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/public-warned-you-about-wasteland-why-were-you-so-slow-to-331719/

I can’t say I feel remotely optimistic that the Cherwell incident will be properly investigated and prosecuted, nor that the mountain of rubbish will be safely removed in a timely manner.

It’s utterly shocking and depressing.

Something similar is happening where I live. Enforcement appears to be entirely toothless. It’s bloody awful.

Over the summer the air was thick with acrid smoke where they were burning lorry loads of waste. We could see at least one fridge freezer as well as a lot of house clearance waste so god only knows what we were breathing in. 😡

Twitter/X sleuths have identified a highly probable suspect, it won’t even be hard work for the police who presumably have ready access to CCTV from the surrounding roads in a way that I assume the Environment agency perhaps won’t.

https://x.com/plebenforcement/status/1989633838952452486?s=46

No. The Environment Agency have the investigatorial and prosecution powers for this.

They also have the expertise.

This isn't one for the Police who are already strapped and struggling to attend the most basic of crimes let alone taking on yet more lengthy complex work for others agencies.

Heartbreaking to know this crime will go uninvestigated. I bet it’s well known who are the likeliest suspects, to be able to carry this out.

The Environment Agency is the correct body to investigate and prosecute this kind of environmental crime. The problem is it is woefully underfunded, worse so than the police.

I agree but I suppose it's more a case of the police giving a bit of help? Take the time out from some of the bizarre things they do on NCHIs

we've had problems with it here and it's done by industrial equipment

So the answer is always that it's too expensive to find out who is behind it. There is never a camera in the exact spot.

However, there will be cameras along the roads that they took to get there - at least round here, they'll have gone along a main road before turning off into a couple of B roads

Quite often it's reported early in the morning by joggers or whatever so they will at least know a rough timeframe of when it happened.

Not seen anything on this scale, fortunately. I do think they can do something about it but they just isn't the desire. I don't blame the environment agency. I think the real issue is probably higher up than that and relates to the whole running of areas and the country in general.

constantly allocating money to things that people don't care about and refusing funds for things that we do care about.

buck stops with government. I have only lived in this area for two years but people who have lived here longer say the problem dates back to lockdown mostly. I think it just made it so easy to flytip in the middle of the night.

Constant bloody building work doesn't help. That's mostly the type of stuff that gets dumped around here. Mum and I have both reached the conclusion that the constant improving of houses round here is probably linked to money laundering. Yes, it sounds conspiracy minded, but she isn't like me, so for her to think of it is really something else!

when Boris Johnson was in charge, I said that I had the overwhelming sense that nobody is doing anything about anything.

I think there was a real ethos of ignoring the basics and everyone has just carried that on after Johnson.

It’s shocking @eurochick endless buck passing and a total failure to deal with the problem. I’ve seen plenty of fly tipping that infuriates me, but had no idea highly organised large scale criminal activity like this was going on.

I'm sure it will be investigated and prosecuted, why wouldn't it be.
The judge can only give appropriate sentences, but recent environment harm punishments have been high.
E.g https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-65339969

There are environmental crime officers in the police, and specific waste crime officers where I live.

Prison sentences, 1 year per tonne dumped should solve it. Why do we let people get away with this?

But a farmer is low hanging fruit - they know who to go after! It doesn’t involve any investigation at all to speak of.

Aargh! Pressed YABU by accident. Of course this should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice. Given the cost of cleaning this up a nationwide task force should be set up to stop it happening, with the public being asked to tip off the relevant agencies when they know, or suspect, illegal tipping is going on. Given the scale of these waste mountains it’s not an isolated incident that could completely go under the radar.

Ps. Waste crime where i live would be investigated by EA equivalent not police. As others have said above.

More from X internet sleuths. (Apologies for non PC terminology, not my post).

https://x.com/colrfx/status/1989774050965750012?s=46

Good, I hope they are sent to prison and their assets removed to pay for the clean up. This is disgusting and made worse that it has probably been done to save money/monetary gain.

Further sleuthing and the business address has other businesses there which used to do driveways and roofing. And Google maps shows some catholic ornaments on the window sill. Mmmm.

Yes, there needs to be a rapid response unit in collaboration with police so that public reports are investigated promptly, with enforcement agents able to deal with possibly violent criminals and make arrests there and then.
Alongside a nationwide task force for dealing with the waste safely and promptly. When there is such a massive amount it is too much for local councils to bear the cost and as I said earlier, the idea of the EA making those responsible clear it up is just a bad joke.

Yes, that plus massive fines/impounding of assets or equipment eg the heavy goods vehicles etc.

ive just seen this on the news and it’s the worst case of fly tipping I’ve seen . They should throw every bit of manpower at finding who did this .

The Police seem to have a strategy of igoring organised crime completely and focusing entirely on bollocking and fining normal people who make mistakes or do things they disapprove of.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/22/london-woman-shocked-by-150-fine-for-pouring-coffee-down-street-drain
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gran-slapped-75-fine-feeding-17576097

You realise that example is nothing to do with police? It was a council worker who did that, because the police don't enforce on that law.

Thats the awful yet inevitable conclusion I drew too.
And I dont think the UK has the same legal obstacles to prosecution of this group for criminal activity as exists here in Ireland (protection in the Constitution as a race apart) yet one reads all the time about cases getting nowhere even in Britain.

Wasnt that just a power crazed council worker or non-Force community copper? (The sort who try to arrest buskers when no by laws are being broken)
But man, what a wild story all the same.
Hysterical contrast between that punctilious application of a smidgen of a law over a few mouthfuls of coffee, against a society allowing graffiti’d town centres to moulder oxter-deep in discarded food wrappers, cans and bottles, and of course, dogshit and soiled nappies 🤬

So my thinking has changed over the last couple of hours.

I think the local authorities might be responsible for it (!!!!) or they might know who's responsible for it and they're pointing to some shadowy organised crime to make it look hard to deal with.

More about the investigation from the local river guardians.

Link to petition within the tweet. Please sign.

https://x.com/paulpowlesland/status/1990525401869783100?s=46

So many theories being bandied about on Twitter. I hope this gets some Wagatha Christie/ Coldplay Affair style legs and is resolved by the internet to keep public pressure on the authorities because it would actually be for something worthwhile this time!