About 30,000 tonnes of household rubbish has been dumped at a protected site near a picturesque Leicestershire village in the latest example of fly-tipping, which is a growing problem across England.
Aerial photos show the “sickening” scale of the rubbish across an area about the size of a football pitch at Cave’s Inn Pits, near Shawell.
The shredded waste, discovered last week after people living nearby reported a bad smell, was strewn across the beauty spot, which is a site of special scientific interest. It was buried under a thin layer of soil in an apparent effort to conceal it.
Phil Hukin, principal manager for Leicestershire and Rutland at Natural England, said: “This site contained some of the best remaining areas of neutral marsh in Leicestershire. It is heartbreaking to see one of England’s precious sites of special scientific interest damaged like this.
“Our officers are working closely with Environment Agency colleagues to investigate this appalling crime.”
An investigation has been launched into the incident, which could cause pollution to a nearby river.
The Environment Agency and Natural England, two public bodies responsible for environmental protection in the UK, have urged people to stay away from the site while the investigation is under way. The Environment Agency added that it would also assess air and water quality to prevent any further environmental impact.
SWNS“This is a sickening case of large-scale illegal waste dumping, and we share the public’s disgust,” Ian Jones, area director for the West Midlands at the Environment Agency, said.
Local people say that the waste has caused an unbearable smell in the village and this became particularly pungent around Easter when the weather was warm.
“It’s really sad to see what they have done up there. It is a site of special scientific interest and lots of people walk their dogs around the fields nearby, but now it just stinks and we can’t go up there,” Sallyann Bundock, 56, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said.
“We started noticing a really pungent smell probably around Easter time. It must have taken thousands of trucks to have unloaded all that yet the landowner doesn’t seem to know anything about it.”
In the year to March 2025 councils in England recorded 1.26 million illegal waste dumping incidents, 9 per cent more than the previous year.
A field in Oxfordshire was tarnished with a sea of rubbish that stretched up to 150 metres long and towered six metres high in November. The incident was called an “environmental catastrophe” by Laura Reineke, of Friends of the Thames, at the time. Two men were arrested as part of an investigation into the dumping, which will cost £9.6 million for a private waste clearance firm to remove over the next 12 months.
Late last month prison sentences were handed down to four men responsible for illegally dumping huge piles of rubbish across London. The gang used tipper trucks to dump tyres, furniture, old baths, doors, mattresses and other waste across six sites in the capital.
Unless the waste is found on public land, the onus for its removal often falls on the landowner. At one of the sites, Imperial Way in Croydon, the proprietors faced a £300,000 clean-up bill.
A farmer in St Albans, who also became a victim of criminals fly-tipping on his land this year, was told it was his responsibility to clear 200 tonnes of illegal waste after the local council failed to identify the criminals. Times readers raised £56,000 to help remove it.
His farm was previously the site of an arson attack after he reported fly-tipping to the council. He has urged the authorities to tackle organised crime gangs dumping waste the same way they do drug gangs.
