{"id":679732,"date":"2026-09-09T04:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679732\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T04:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:52:13","slug":"two-more-people-arrested-over-mountain-of-illegal-waste-dumped-in-oxfordshire-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679732\/","title":{"rendered":"Two more people arrested over \u2018mountain of illegal waste\u2019 dumped in Oxfordshire | Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two men have been arrested after fly-tippers dumped a \u201cmountain of illegal waste\u201d, stacked 10 metres high, in Oxfordshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of tonnes of rubbish appeared in a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington in November last year. The waste tip was so large that removing it could cost more than the local council\u2019s annual budget, the area\u2019s MP said.<\/p>\n

The clean-up operation, which concluded last month, took five months. An estimated 22,704 tonnes of rubbish were cleared, with the operation costing an estimated \u00a36m.<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed on Tuesday that a 21-year-old man from Ashford in Surrey and a 43-year-old man from Stanwell in Surrey had been arrested.<\/p>\n

It brings the total number of people apprehended to six, after one arrest in February, two in January and one in November, the EA said.<\/p>\n

The watchdog shut down the Kidlington site in October after officers discovered continued criminal activity after the first report of dumping at the site in July 2025.<\/p>\n

Colin Chiverton, area environment manager for the Thames at the EA, said: \u201cThe dumping at Kidlington was abhorrent and had no regard for the local community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved quickly to remove all illegal waste from the site and our teams continue to work tirelessly on this investigation. These arrests are another vital step in collecting new evidence and delivering justice for the residents of Kidlington.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dame Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, said: \u201cThis government said we\u2019d take on waste criminals and that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese arrests are another step towards delivering justice for Kidlington residents, who have had to put up with the dumping of disgusting waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe years of waste crime being allowed to fester have ended. We are taking decisive action through our crackdown and putting more officers on the frontline to restore pride in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two men have been released on conditional bail pending further investigations.<\/p>\n

The EA previously announced it was to spend millions of pounds to clear the enormous illegal rubbish dump, saying the waste was at risk of catching fire.<\/p>\n

Its policy is to refuse to clear up illegal waste dumps across the country, instead pursuing the perpetrators and landowners. But officials said they had taken the exceptional decision to clear up the waste outside Kidlington, which is next to the River Cherwell, because the scale of the fire risk set it apart from other illegal waste dumps in England and presented an overriding public imperative.<\/p>\n

The agency was given no extra money to clear the waste, and the EA said this would come from \u201cmaking efficiencies in its operations\u201d. The cost to the taxpayer would also include the payment of the landfill tax on the waste to the Treasury.<\/p>\n

The dumping in Kidlington took place under the noses of the EA, which was monitoring the site after being alerted to suspicious activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men have been arrested after fly-tippers dumped a \u201cmountain of illegal waste\u201d, stacked 10 metres high, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":["post-679732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117239293474400691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}