Taxpayers bear £6 million cost for Oxfordshire illegal waste site clean-up

Before-and-after aerial comparison of an illegal waste site in Kidlington. The lefthand image, dated 16 November 2025, shows a long, narrow mound of waste extending through a wooded strip. The righthand image, dated 21 August 2026, shows the same area after clean-up, with the waste removed and a cleared strip of bare ground visible between trees.

Drone footage from November 2025 captured the scale of the Kidlington tip

The clear-up of one of England's largest illegal waste tips has been completed - landing taxpayers with a £6m bill.

The government has vowed to recoup the clearance costs for the Kidlington dump in Oxfordshire - and seven other sites - from the criminals responsible.

In 2025, around 22,000 tonnes of domestic and commercial rubbish was dumped at the spot, between the River Cherwell and the A34. It is one of nearly 30 so-called "supersites" first uncovered by a BBC investigation.

The government, which launched a crackdown on waste crime last week, said it would do more to force criminals to pay for clean-up operations by confiscating their money and assets.

But figures obtained by the BBC show that, in the past five years, the Environment Agency has so far managed to claw back just over £7m from waste criminals using Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) confiscation orders.

At the same time, the agency says waste crime costs the economy £1bn a year.

Campaigners have labelled the amount taken from convicted criminals as "derisory" while the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents rural landowners, asked: "Where is the deterrent?"

The amount paid by criminals so far was revealed by an Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) request to the Environment Agency by the BBC.

It shows there have been 66 confiscation orders between January 2021 and March 2026, totalling £7.3m.

Fourteen orders have yet to be fully paid, leaving around £1.4m still to be recovered.

The figures cover those larger illegal sites for which the Environment Agency is responsible, and do not include confiscation orders for smaller fly-tipping offences, which fall under the remit of local authorities.

Baroness Sheehan, who chairs the House of Lords environment and climate change committee, said the figures obtained by the BBC showed "consistent, decisive enforcement" was lacking.

"With clean-up costs at sites such as Kidlington far exceeding these sums, and enforcement still lagging, the taxpayer continues to foot the bill," she said.

"The Environment Agency must do more to secure and enforce confiscation orders against those responsible, so criminals pay - not communities."

As well as the work at the Kidlington site, the Environment Agency has also stepped in to clear a supersite at Hoads Wood, near Ashford in Kent.

The cost of these two clearances alone has been budgeted at £20m by the Environment Agency - although the Kidlington project has come in under the original £7.3m contract.