Four men have been arrested in connection with large-scale illegal dumping of waste at a site on Bolton House Road in Wigan, Greater Manchester, authorities said. The site, notorious among local residents for persistent foul odours, was also the location of a week-long fire last summer that forced nearby schools to close.
The arrests were made as part of an ongoing investigation by the Environment Agency’s National Environmental Crime Unit, with support from police forces across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire. Two men from Wigan, aged 41 and 35, along with a 24-year-old man from Leeds and a 59-year-old man from Liverpool were taken into custody in relation to environmental offences, fraud, and money laundering connected to the waste dumping activities.
The man from Leeds also faces allegations tied to illegal dumping at Cave’s Inn Pits, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest near Shawell in Leicestershire. Earlier this year in May, a 58-year-old man from the Birmingham area was arrested linked to the Leicestershire site, indicating a wider network under investigation.
Local officials and government representatives condemned the dumping. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham described the situation as an “ocean of rubbish” impacting families’ quality of life and vowed that waste crime would no longer be tolerated under his administration. “Today’s action by the Environment Agency and the police is just the start. The days of making easy money from such offences are over,” he stated following the arrests.
Dame Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, emphasized the severity of the offences, calling the dumping a “blatant disregard for local communities.”
In response to the environmental and community impact, the government announced it would directly fund the removal and clean-up of waste at the Bolton House Road site. Access to the area has been physically blocked with concrete barriers to deter further dumping. Wigan council is currently working to appoint a specialist contractor to manage the clean-up operations.
The investigation into the illegal dumping also highlights the challenges in combating waste crime, particularly in protecting sensitive environmental locations such as the Cave’s Inn Pits. Authorities have reiterated their commitment to cracking down on these offences through coordinated enforcement efforts.