Detentions Made in Relation to Massive Unauthorized Landfill

Two men have been taken into custody as part of an investigation into the dumping of thousands of tons of refuse in a field in Oxfordshire.

Law enforcement stated that a man in his late sixties was detained at a property in Andover, Hampshire, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in the town of Slough in association with the massive mound of waste tipped near the area of Kidlington.

These arrests occur a week after a recent revelation which exposed the operation of more than 500 unauthorized tips in England, including at minimum 11 so-called "major sites" larger than 20,000 tonnes.

A spokeswoman for the environment body said that the detentions were for ecological and financial offences and represented a "key step" in ongoing probes. Both men have been released on pre-trial release.

Scale of the Situation

The tipping ground in Kidlington, positioned between the River Cherwell and the A34 road, is believed to house about 21,000 tonnes of waste in a pile which is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) high.

This heap of waste is made up of what appears to be sorted household waste, fragmented plastic items, polystyrene, tyres and other household objects.

It represents just a single of 517 unauthorized dumps in England, at minimum 11 of which are estimated to hold more than 20,000 metric tons of waste. These include a 280,000-tonne location in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall and a 36,000-tonne tip in the county of Kent.

The overall figure of such larger dumps is likely to be greater, as the environmental authority has earlier acknowledged it does not hold records on volume for each illegal site.

A large proportion of these sites are in rural locations, often concealed, and on land that is zoned as agricultural land.

Organized Enterprise

Law enforcement report numerous are managed by organised crime gangs, who are earning money by demanding far less than licensed operators to receive and landfill rubbish.

Businesses have to pay gate fees to use licensed disposal sites, contingent on the volume and type of waste they are trying to discard, and a waste tax is also levied at just over £126 per metric ton.

Community Outrage

Preparation efforts to clear the Kidlington area dump began earlier this month due to concerns over the risk of combustion and the consequences that would have on the close-by major road.

A private waste clearance firm has been awarded the contract to handle the area over the next 12 months period at a cost of £9.6m.

An compliance official for the national environmental crime unit said that the authority would be looking to recover the clearance funds under confiscation laws from any party successfully prosecuted at the end of its ongoing case.

She added that these arrests would help "move the inquiry forward" and allow officials to "follow more lines of inquiry to ascertain exactly what happened and who was a party to it".

"This unlawful site at Kidlington was an atrocious and intentional affront on our environment and officials empathize with the community's frustration at this terrible crime," she stated.

A government representative praised the arrests, commenting: "This unlawful dumping of rubbish at Kidlington is disgraceful and has caused substantial harm to the ecology and anguish to the local community.

"Our authorities is dedicated to stamping out this kind of crime throughout the nation, by increasing funds to tackle environmental crime, hiring more personnel and implementing tougher controls and sanctions for those who break the law."

The arrests were made on the specified day by officers from a regional serious crime squad and are in addition to an prior detention of a man in his thirties from the Guildford area region in last November. He was let go awaiting further enquiries.