Four men arrested over illegal waste dumping at 'infamous' Wigan site

Four men have been arrested following an investigation into large-scale, illegal dumping of waste at a "notorious" site in Wigan, the Environment Agency has announced.

It said the 25,000-tonne Bolton House Road site in Bickershaw, which is a stone's throw from a primary school, has caused "misery" for local residents with reports of "horrid smells".

Two men aged 35 and 41 from Wigan, a 24-year-old from Leeds and a 59-year-old from Liverpool have been detained on suspicion of environmental, fraud and money laundering offences.

The suspect from Leeds has also been arrested in connection with waste dumping at the Cave's Inn Pits Site of Special Scientific Interest near Shawell in Leicestershire.

In May, a 58-year-old man from the Birmingham area was also arrested for illegal dumping of waste at the Bolton House Road site.

Andy Burnham said on Tuesday: "I have stood on Bolton House Road and seen what local people have had to live with. It is shocking - an ocean of rubbish piled up next to a primary school, and families unable to escape the smell in their own homes.

"This is not fly tipping. This is organised crime, and it is local communities that are paying the price.

"For too long, this issue has been ignored. But not on my watch. Today's action by the Environment Agency and the police is just the start of our plans. The days of making easy money from waste are over."

The Bolton House Road site was one of three illegal dumps where a toxic mix of hundreds of chemicals was detected after testing by Sky News.

The other two sites were at Over in Gloucester and Ranskill, near Doncaster.

Over the last six months, Sky News worked with scientists from Oxford Indices to conduct testing of air, water and soil at the sites.

At Wigan, the pesticide demeton-O may be present, while at the 55,000-tonne dump in Ranskill, there was a strong match for the pesticide thanite.

Neither of those chemicals has been approved for use in the UK for decades, as they pose a danger to human and animal life.

A footprint was also found at Wigan for P-tert amylphenol, which disrupts the endocrine system and has a "chronic aquatic toxicity" classification.

And at Ranskill, a strong match for the chemical carbon tetrachloride was detected in the air - a volatile compound banned in consumer products that can cause liver and kidney damage, as well as being linked to cancer.

At Over, where 100,000 tonnes of waste have been festering for more than seven years, analysis of fumes found almost four times as many chemicals as emissions from an average car exhaust.

The chemicals in Gloucester were consistent with burning or heated fuels and oils, plastics, tyres, resins, paints or solvents, food waste, fragranced products and chlorinated materials.

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In March, the Environment Agency published its 10-point plan for tackling waste crime, which sets out how it will act earlier to address illegal activity and deliver more consistent enforcement action.

In 2024-25, the agency stopped 743 illegal waste sites operating without permits, led 37 operations resulting in 40 arrests through the joint unit for waste crime, and carried out 21 money laundering investigations.

(c) Sky News 2026: Four men arrested over illegal waste dumping at 'infamous' Wigan site