Schools and household houses susceptible to fires or poisonous leaks from gangs’ unlawful waste dumps
EXCLUSIVE: Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has vowed to treat gangs who dump tonnes of illegal waste like drug criminals – warning them that she is ‘coming for you’
Schools and family homes are at risk from potentially dangerous fires or toxic leaks nearby caused by criminal gangs illegally dumping tonnes of waste in their communities.
Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has vowed to treat waste gangs like drug criminals – warning them that she is “coming for you”. The former Home Office minister has been on the frontline of the Government’s work since her appointment as environment chief in July was followed by heatwaves, wildfires and ongoing droughts.
In her first interview with The Mirror, she vowed to tackle environmental issues with the urgency they deserve, adding that climate change is “here now” and El Niño hasn’t happened “by accident”. Her first major drive is cleaning up the mountains of illegally dumped vapes, household rubbish, bricks, asbestos and other waste that are blighting people’s lives across Britain.
Schools have been forced to close because of toxic air and smoke coming from fires, while there are concerns about chemical leaks into groundwater, severe public health risks and the risk of a major environmental crisis. An estimated 20% of waste streams are controlled by organised criminality.
The Mirror joined Dame Angela last week for the first meeting of the waste crime crackdown group, where she told mayors, waste experts and other ministers she will not “tolerate” the scourge. Asked for her message to waste criminals, she told this newspaper: “We’re coming for you. We’re going to stop you doing this, and we are going to – once we’ve convicted you – take your ill-gotten gains off you.
“You’re not going to profit from behaving in this way and putting our children and communities at risk, having to live next door to these waste sites, anymore. So your low-risk, high-profitable activity is over.”
Waste crime can take place in a variety of ways but can include criminals posing as a legitimate company – such as a white van removal service – or intercepting legal waste disposal processes. It means regular households who are trying to dispose of their waste correctly, such as when they are renovating or moving home, may unknowingly send their money to gangs who then spend it on illicit activities.
Some 36 waste criminals have been arrested since April this year, while several major illegal waste sites have been fully cleared. Among sites cleaned up is Kidlington’s waste dump, which was larger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium and contained more than 22,000 tonnes of waste, including tyres, shredded plastic, and household rubbish.
The government has also committed to cleaning up some of the country’s most egregious illegal waste sites, including an 18,000-tonne site at Bolton House Road in Wigan, which is in Andy Burnham’s Makerfield constituency. A fire at the site in July caused businesses to close and children to miss several days of school. Locals are being offered dedicated health checks amid fears over chemicals dumped at the site.
In his first month as Prime Minister, Mr Burnham put a crackdown on waste crime at the top of his agenda, saying that mountains of rubbish are “a clear sign to communities that politics hasn’t been working for them”. He visited a waste dump estimated to hold several thousand tonnes of waste at Midland Road, Bradford, with Dame Angela in August, when he announced an increase in fines for waste offences from £300 to £5,000.
Those responsible for serious offences face tougher sanctions, including prosecution and imprisonment. Dame Angela, who is also in charge of the water sector, blamed Margaret Thatcher for the privatisation of the waste management sector – the same analysis Mr Burnham has made of the water industry. The PM in September announced he will bring in new laws to allow the Government to take back control of water.
Asked if public ownership could be on the cards for waste management, Dame Angela said: “It may be at some time in the future we might want to think about ownership, but I think we’ve got more immediate things to do now, and that is to deal with the serious and organised crime issues and to deal with the toxic waste that is ending up far too close to communities blighting people’s lives.”
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, who has been an MP for more than 30 years, added that the Labour government is the “only political party” taking the climate and the environment seriously, amid the Tories and Reform diverging from the UK’s climate change plans.
She admitted it is hard to predict the impact of the El Niño climate phenomenon but that it could cause more extreme storms and wetter winters in the UK, or disruption to global food supply chains.
She said: “This is climate change. It is here now. It is happening now. This El Niño hasn’t come about by accident. Now I think the Labour government is the only political party that’s actually taking this seriously and thinking about what we can do to adapt, as well as trying to come to international agreements to mitigate the effects.
“I mean, the Tories are moving away from net zero. Reform seems to think that it’s all about having nicer wine. Nicer wine is very nice, but you have to deal with the fact that our weather patterns are changing, or what effect that will have not only in our country but on food security more generally. So yeah, it’s here now, and we need to realise that it is and adapt our systems to cope with the unpredictability of it.”
