UK's notorious waste supersite cleaned up - and costs taxpayer £6m

UK's notorious waste supersite cleaned up - and costs taxpayer £6m An illegal waste dump, bigger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium, has finally been cleared after a five-month mission - the site was one of the biggest fly-tipping spots in the country and cost £6m to clean A notorious illegal waste site dubbed Britain's "biggest-ever fly-tip" has finally been cleared but at a sizeable cost to the taxpayer. The tip, just off the A34 in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, was 500ft long and rammed with rubbish in the middle of the countryside. Around 22,000 tonnes of waste were dumped at the illegal site in 2025 alone. The Environment Agency, on Thursday, announced that it had finished a five-month long operation to clear more than 22,000 tonnes of waste from the location. The government has said it intends to recoup the £6m clean-up costs from the criminals behind the huge dump, which the EA said was larger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium. Prime Minister Andy Burnham last week set out a new plan to go after the criminal gangs running illegal waste sites. This included making it easier for authorities to hunt down these people and recoup money by seizing their assets. The Kidlington dump, next to the River Cherwell, had been branded by locals as "an atrocious and deliberate attack on our environment", the EA previously said. This illegal site was shut by officers in October 2025 and items like household waste, shredded plastic and tyres were dug up in the huge clean-up operation. Officials have now placed concrete blocks at the entrance and padlocked the gates to block access to the former-illegal dump. The EA added that its criminal investigation into illegal dumping at Kidlington is ongoing, with four people already having been arrested in connection to the site. The government has also vowed to clear other notorious illegal dumps across the UK, including: Bolton House Road, in Wigan, and Midland Road, in Bradford. Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said: "Communities deserves to be free from the blight of illegal waste dumping, and this clean-up shows we will bring hope back to local residents. "After years of waste crime being allowed to fester, we are taking decisive action through our crackdown, and cleaning up sites like Kidlington is just one part. By putting more officers on the frontline and using drones to catch offenders in the act, we’re putting the criminal gangs on notice that there is nowhere left to hide." The governments crackdown on illegal dumping has included raising the maximum fine for rogue actors who dump waste illegally or fail to treat it correctly from a maximum of £300 to £5000. The Environment Agency has urged anyone with information on the Kidlington site to call the 24-hour hotline on 0800 807060 or report it to Crimestoppers.