A 39-year-old man from the Guildford area has been arrested in connection with the illegal dumping of tonnes of waste in a field alongside the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire. The arrest was made by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit, and the suspect is currently being questioned.
The fly-tipping, which created a vast mountain of waste on a 1.2-hectare site near Kidlington, came to light after campaigners shared images of the scale of the dumping. Local MP Calum Miller has called for an urgent government directive to clear the site before it causes irreparable damage to the river.
The Environment Agency (EA) is leading the criminal investigation. Anna Burns, the agency's area director for the Thames, stated: 'The appalling illegal waste dump in Kidlington has rightly provoked outrage. We have been working round the clock with the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit to bring the perpetrators to justice.'
Suspicions of illegal dumping were first raised in July, leading the EA to send a cease and desist letter to the landowner. However, satellite images confirmed that the waste was dumped in September. The EA obtained a court order to close the site on 23 October, and officials have since agreed a plan to deploy additional protective barriers to prevent waste from polluting the river during heavy rainfall or flooding.
