The Environment Agency (EA) at last announced in November that contractors have been appointed to clear the site of rubbish. Why has this taken so long?
Illegal dumping began in 2020
According to local campaigners, the timeline of inaction starts on 27 January 2020 when a local resident contacted Ashford Borough Council (ABC) to report that a rubbish tipping operation had started in Hoads Wood, which is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) in the countryside near Ashford.
ABC responded: “I would like to advise that our planning enforcement team are aware of this issue and are currently taking enforcement action.”
But nothing was done to halt further operations. Covid restrictions came into force in March of that year, so maybe the slowing of the economy also temporarily halted this illegal dumping.
They came back with a truck and bulldozer in 2023
But by July 2023 the illegal operators were back on site with a truck and a bulldozer. A concerned resident rang 101 – the non-emergency number to call the police in the UK. Kent Police stated: “It is an (Ashford Borough) matter.” So the resident called the ABC and was told: “We are aware of the situation and it is part of a legitimate multi-agency operation.”
Kent Police also phoned ABC and received the same message. Assuming that this was a multi-agency clear-up of the illegal 2020 dumping, the resident took no further action.
Bethersden Parish Council, having inspected the site because of a planning application on a different matter, started to follow up with ABC continually from July 2023 until January 2024.
Many more local residents made complaints to the authorities
In July 2023, plot owners of nearby woodland spotted illegal activity on an SSSI site. They contacted the police while it was happening and were told to call ABC, but they didn’t answer. They then called the EA who appeared to log the call.
A local farmer telephoned a woodland plot owner to say 8-10 more loads of 20 tonnes had just been tipped into the woodland, making up about 2000 tonnes by that time. A Hothfield resident also filed complaints about the lorries in August-September 2023. The police then requested permission from a local farmer to fly drones from his field over the site to collect evidence. Police told the resident that the lorries were coming from the Medway area.
But the police also contacted a concerned woodland plot holder to say that “the decision has been made that no crime has been met” and the matter had been referred to the ABC Enforcement office. One resident was so frustrated with the 20-30 lorries passing by daily that she checked the registration numbers and found some were out of MOT. Some lorries were even without number plates, which was reported to the police, again with no urgent action.
One resident received a response from ABC: “I can confirm that this is being dealt with by both the Environment Agency and the Police.”
A Bethersden resident chased up continually even supplying photos of the lorries and registration numbers. Former MP for Ashford Damian Green was contacted but replied that the Parish Council was aware of the situation! The EA only started to take action on 16 January 2024 to block the entrance to the site.
After TV publicity, a public meeting called
In January 2024, TalkTV arrived with cameras and managed to get pictures of a lorry with no number plates entering the site, which were then published by the Daily Mail Online.
There followed a public meeting of some 200 residents chaired by Green and attended by reps from Kent County Council, Kent Police, ABC, the EA and various nature organisations. It was agreed that there should be an immediate clean-up of Hoads Wood and an investigation into failures to respond sooner so as to prevent further occurrences. Green agreed to get direction from UK government on the clear-up as the EA would need funding for this.
Funds raised for legal injunction to compel the government to act
But again, progress was painfully slow. Meanwhile, residents had been reporting to ABC about the smells emanating from the site. In May 2024 the Hoads Wood action group set a deadline of May 17 2024 for the budget to be approved and clear-up to commence on 14 June 2024. But then there was the 2024 General Election.
Faced with further delay, the activists raised funds (approximately £2000) via a petition to pay for a lawyer to bring an injunction to force the government to act.
Now with a new national government in place, the funds have finally been made available.
The EA has now appointed contractor to clear the site
The EA wrote to the campaigners that: “We are currently arranging to clear waste from Hoads Wood but there are several matters to take into account before physical clearance can commence.”
The letter added: “A criminal investigation continues in order to bring those who duped an estimated 30,000 tonnes of waste at Hoads Wood before the courts.”
The EA wants to retrieve the costs of clearing the dump from the criminals. It had previously said the dumped material was not hazardous, but that was only from surface tests. The contractor now has to do 50-plus probes to full depth (more than 4m in places) to determine if it is hazardous before they can remove it.
Campaigners have seen evidence of toxic leachate in the watercourse leading to the River Beult. There is also medical waste such as the phials used in the drive-in COVID test sites. Sadly, many of the ancient trees are dying in the vicinity of the dump.
What does this sorry tale reveal about local democracy?
Firstly, all praise to the local residents and plot-holders who made sterling efforts to contact the authorities; crime thrives where there is public indifference. They not only took action at the time to report and collect evidence, but also banded together to force the authorities to act.
Secondly, there are lessons to be learned about how the authorities tossed the problem between offices, each asserting the other was dealing with the matter in a kind of pass-the-parcel way.
Thirdly, it probably comes down to resources. Regulations are toothless without funds and expertise to enforce them. The EA has been gutted of staff in the past decade. Quick action to block the site probably required military-style planning which their staff, and possibly even Kent police, were ill-equipped for. Ultimately, it is costing public funds millions, so it would be better to act sooner in future.
Hopefully lessons will be learned
A spokesperson for the Rescue Hoads Wood campaign comments: “Much is made of a lack of resource to enforce. We don’t buy this. We, the locals, were the eyes and ears on the ground and reported diligently. The site benefits from strict legal protection as an SSSI. All public authorities have a duty under Section 28g of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They all failed and sought to pass the buck rather than act. Any court would have granted permission to block the site from the moment the first digger prepared the ground. Now the cost is actually estimated at £15mn. Some heads should roll but somehow I doubt that will happen. Hopefully, lessons will be learned at the very least.”
Editor’s note
Environmental crimes like this are a symptom of a consumer society not planning properly for waste disposal. I encountered a similar delay with complaints to the EA some five years ago when I tried to log a pollution incident – a fire at a dump of used tyres in the industrial site that was sending fumes all over the neighbourhood. The dealer was burning them at a time when India had just passed a law rejecting tyre dumps imported from other countries such as the UK.
