In a field just off the A34 near Kidlington, practically waving distance from Thames Valley Police HQ, thousands of tonnes of rubbish have been skillfully deposited onto what was once a peaceful grassy field. Overnight, this quiet corner of Oxfordshire has become Mount Trashmore, the county’s newest man-made mountain range.
Drone and satellite images show a rubbish mountain 60 metres long, 15 metres wide and up to 12 metres high. Some reports even stretch that to 150 metres.
Locals and campaigners describe it as a 'biodiversity nuclear bomb' which sounds like something DEFRA might copyright and trial in a future plea for funding PowerPoint. The dump sits on a floodplain beside the River Cherwell which also feeds the Thames - why ruin one river when you can fuck up two?
Leachate has already been seen oozing toward a ditch, which is nature’s way of saying 'consider yourselves warned'. Should fire break out we'd doubtless see a spectacular airborne cocktail of burning foam and melted plastic that could feasible smoulder for months.
This man planned, man made disaster could cost more to clean than the district council’s entire annual budget which means if the culprits aren’t caught we, the taxpayers, will be paying for someone else’s criminal entrepreneurship; and we Brits are good at that. One industry expert reckons the criminal masterminds behind this could have pocketed over half a million pounds proving once and for all that crime really does pay, especially when the regulators are busy putting desist stickers on gates and sending sternly worded letters.
This wasn’t a couple of wayward lads in an old white Transit. This is shredded waste (looks like RDF); bulk haulage logistics, regular runs on night shifts abusing a floodplain hidden from the road by trees - it's wrong, but it's so clever. Whoever organised this knows the industry. They knew what to move, how to move it and crucially, which agencies probably wouldn’t move themselves.
The Environment Agency has commandingly declared the site a 'critical incident' and issued a cease-and-desist after the tipping had finished. A 39-year-old man from Guildford was arrested and released.
In summary, the EA didn’t stop it, Cherwell & Oxfordshire Councils didn’t stop it, National Highways didn’t stop all those trucks rolling by under lamp posts; the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (hands up who knew that existed) didn’t stop it. To their credit, the EA has now proposed sandbags because as everyone knows, sandbags fix everything.
Organised criminal gangs are dumping millions of tonnes of waste across the UK every year. Kidlington simply raised the bar, quite literally, by 12 metres. This isn’t just a failure, it’s a coordinated team effort of failure; a national, multi-agency, top-to-bottom refusal to join the dots even when those dots were 150 metres long and filled with old sofas.
This wasn’t a couple of wayward lads in an old white Transit. This is shredded waste (looks like RDF); bulk haulage logistics, regular runs on night shifts abusing a floodplain hidden from the road by trees - it's wrong, but it's so clever. Whoever organised this knows the industry. They knew what to move, how to move it and crucially, which agencies probably wouldn’t move themselves.
The Environment Agency has commandingly declared the site a 'critical incident' and issued a cease-and-desist after the tipping had finished. A 39-year-old man from Guildford was arrested and released.
In summary, the EA didn’t stop it, Cherwell & Oxfordshire Councils didn’t stop it, National Highways didn’t stop all those trucks rolling by under lamp posts; the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (hands up who knew that existed) didn’t stop it. To their credit, the EA has now proposed sandbags because as everyone knows, sandbags fix everything.
Organised criminal gangs are dumping millions of tonnes of waste across the UK every year. Kidlington simply raised the bar, quite literally, by 12 metres. This isn’t just a failure, it’s a coordinated team effort of failure; a national, multi-agency, top-to-bottom refusal to join the dots even when those dots were 150 metres long and filled with old sofas.
It is, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, hard not to admire the technical execution. It has brilliant project management; supply chain finesse and incredible operational discipline,
What’s really tragic is not the shameless criminal genius, it’s how easy they made us look like mugs. More like this (littering) - link - more like this (Oxford) - link - more like this (random) - link
What’s really tragic is not the shameless criminal genius, it’s how easy they made us look like mugs. More like this (littering) - link - more like this (Oxford) - link - more like this (random) - link
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