The proliferation of serious illegal waste dumps around the country shows that the Environment Agency has completely lost control of the problem and the illegal waste criminals are winning. As stinking mounds of waste pile up in ancient woodlands, beside our rivers and in what should be green rolling countryside, it is nature that is paying the price. 

One of the largest illegal waste dumps in the country has now been discovered next to the River Roding at Stapleford Tawney, near Epping. Nobody knows what exactly is dumped on this 20,000 square metre site, or how much waste it contains, but it is certainly 10’s of thousands of tonnes. Shockingly, rubbish has been dumped on this site since 2024 and the Environment Agency (EA) has known about it for at least a year. Even now, however, the EA has not shut down the site by obtaining a legal closure order, physically blocking off the site and putting in CCTV monitoring. 

On this site, we are demanding that the EA:

- Shuts down the site (physically & legally) within 7 days. 
- Begins investigations into who has been dumping on this site & prosecutes where possible. 
- Takes emergency measures to stop pollution of the River Roding by introducing a buffer along the edge of the site, blocking landfill leachate and carrying out water quality testing. 
- Undertakes to remove all the waste on the site, given that most of it has been dumped when the EA were fully aware of the site, but took no action. 

Whilst we need action to prevent an environmental catastrophe at the Roding waste dump, it must not be forgotten that this is part of a much broader problem, in which the EA has seemingly lost control of illegal waste dumping & seems completely incapable of upholding the law and protecting nature, rivers and landscapes from this scourge. 

We therefore also call on the government to enact the following policies:

- The EA must act to shut down- both legally & physically- any significant (defined as at least 50 tonnes of waste) waste site within three days of being notified of it. 
- The EA will have a clear legal responsibility to remove any waste from an illegal waste site that is dumped there after the EA has been notified of the existence of the site. 
- More budget for investigating illegal waste dumping and much higher penalties for those caught, which should be in line with other organised criminal activities (eg drug, weapons and human trafficking). 

Without these changes, more communities and rivers like the Roding will be destroyed by the scourge of organised criminal waste dumping.