Hundreds of illegal dumps are operating across England, including at least 11 so-called “super sites” containing tens of thousands of tonnes of rubbish, a BBC investigation has found.

More than 700 illegal tips were shut down in 2024/25, but data released by the Environment Agency has revealed some 517 dumps were still active at the end of last year.

Among the largest sites that have yet to be cleared up are a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall, a 36,000-tonne tip in Kent and a 20,000-tonne dump in Oxfordshire.

Most sites are in countryside locations, often hidden, and on what should be agricultural land.

Police say many are run by organised crime gangs, who are making cash by charging much less than legitimate operators to take and bury waste.

An Environment Agency spokesman said it was committed to tackling waste crime and was “pulling every lever to disrupt those who profit from the harm illegal waste sites cause”.

Environmental campaigners and residents living near sites across England say little is being done to clean up the dumps, despite the culprits in many cases already having been identified and prosecuted.

In Gloucestershire, tens of thousands of tonnes of waste has been dumped at land in Over.

Witnesses have told the BBC that, at its height, 30-50 vehicles were going onto the site near the Over roundabout every day.

A fire in June 2025, which saw Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service called out, caused operations at the site to largely cease, although it has not been closed off.

Fires regularly break out at the site, which is close to a busy main road and at the back of a popular countryside park and farmshop. When the BBC visited, plumes of smoke could be seen rising from a couple of spots on the tip.

Although the Environment Agency is investigating, many locals feel not enough has been done to crack down on those using the site to dump waste nor to clean it up.

Charlie Coats, chairman of Highnam Parish Council, said the site was now a “significant blot on the landscape” and that the rubbish was leaking into the floodplain of the River Leadon, which flows into the River Severn.

He said the lorries that had been dumping waste daily over the years had created road safety, noise and pollution issues.

“It’s caused a smell, there’s been smoke, there’s been noise. It’s damaged a lot of vegetation, trees and bushes have been destroyed, and it’s a significant blot on the landscape. Some of the pollutant material is leaching out into the water courses.

“Added to that, there have been incidents of spontaneous combustion where material has heated up and caught fire. The fire service has been called out on a couple of occasions to dampen that down.

“People are concerned that really there’s been no effective measures of control to stop this activity and no indication from the Environment Agency as to what they’re going to do,” he said.

The BBC was unable to contact the landowner but contacted one of the people believed to be using the Over site. He declined to comment.

An Environment Agency spokesman said they were “actively investigating” the dumping and had shared “as much information as we can with the residents of Highnam without prejudicing any further enforcement action”.

Many of the tips operating across the country are run by serious organised crime gangs. The scale of illegal waste activity in England saw it once dubbed the “new narcotics” by former Environment Agency chief Sir James Bevan.

The gangs often bring shredding equipment onto rural sites, located off otherwise quiet country lanes, which then see an influx of lorries bringing in waste – from household rubbish to soil and aggregate from construction sites – to be broken down into smaller, dumpable amounts.

Lorry loads are then taken away, either to be dumped in increasingly larger mountains of waste, buried under farmland or bridleways or even stored in barns.

Earlier this month, nearly £100,000 in cash was seized and two men arrested in a series of raids linked to suspected money laundering and waste crimes across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.

Officers also seized six guns, suspected fake electrical goods and a suspected stolen vehicle.

One villager, who lives close to one of the raided locations in Worcestershire, told the BBC that tonnes of waste were being shredded at the site before being dumped elsewhere.

“The environmental impact is just massive. Smoke comes up from the site daily and the smell at times is intoxicating.

“There have been times in the summer when we won’t let the children outside to play because of the smell from the site, because of the fumes that are coming off,” he said.

The resident, who wanted to remain anonymous because he fears reprisals from those operating the sites, added: “We know that they’ve been found with weapons. I know the people behind it. I know what they’re capable of.”

Inspector Dave Wise, of West Mercia Police, said waste crime was “not a problem that can be solved overnight”.

But he added that the force was carrying out complex investigations into organised crime gangs, with links to money laundering and other financial crimes, and into the individuals who were “profiting from pollution of the environment”.

The owner of the Worcestershire site declined to comment when approached by the BBC at his home but has previously said the land is rented out. The tenant has failed to respond to attempts to contact him.

Concerns over the scale of illegal waste activity hit the headlines at the end of last year when approximately 20,000 tonnes of waste was dumped illegally on a field beside the A34 at Kidlington in Oxfordshire over a period of several months.

But using the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) to make a data request the BBC has discovered there are at least 11 sites bigger than 20,000 tonnes.

The number is likely to be higher, as the Environment Agency acknowledged in its response to the EIR request that “this figure is based on the data we hold; however, we don’t have this information for every site”.

Erica Popplewell, of environmental campaign group River Action, queried why the details of the biggest sites had only been made public in response to the BBC’s EIR request.

“Why is the Environment Agency not saying what’s happening more publicly so that we can see what actions they’re taking and the secrecy around dumping sites can be eroded?” she asked.

The Agency has previously declined to give the exact locations of the biggest sites to avoid prejudicing ongoing investigations.

However, it has now revealed six of the biggest sites are at Northwich, Cheshire (280,000 tonnes); Camborne, Cornwall (50,000 tonnes); Burnley, Lancashire (25,000 and 50,000 tonnes); Sittingbourne, Kent (36,000 tonnes); Fakenham, Norfolk (originally 35,000 tonnes). Dumping has been stopped at four of the sites, but none of them have yet been cleared up.

In total, it said, it had stopped activity at 743 illegal waste sites in 2024/25, of which 143 were high risk, but that 517 active dumps remain.

Emma Viner, the Environment Agency’s enforcement and investigations manager, added: “We share the public’s disgust for the things that are happening and for the waste crime that we’re seeing and we are taking action.

“Every year, we’re shutting down hundreds of illegal waste sites.

“But it’s a dynamic picture. For all the waste sites that we’re closing, we’re seeing more and more pop up around the country.”

Baroness Sheehan, who chairs the House of Lords environment and climate change committee, which has been investigating waste crime, said the BBC’s research had “exposed widespread illegal waste dumping across the country”.

“Clearly, whatever actions the government is taking are not sufficient to deal with the problem,” she said.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “We are working across government to wipe out illegal waste throughout the country and make those responsible pay.

“We are directly supporting the Environment Agency to stop the exploitation of our waste system, giving them more officers and 50% more funding to boost waste crime enforcement, and handing out tougher sentences for those who break the law.”