supersites

The Environment Agency has vowed to recoup the clearance costs for the Kidlington dump in Oxfordshire - and seven other sites - from the criminals responsible.

The government has launched a crackdown on waste crime last week, saying it would do more to force criminals to pay for clean-up operations by confiscating their money and assets. But figures obtained by the BBC show that, in the past five years, the Environment Agency has so far managed to claw back just over £7m from waste criminals using Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) confiscation orders.

At the same time, the agency says waste crime costs the economy £1bn a year. Campaigners have labelled the amount taken from convicted criminals as 'derisory' while the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents rural landowners, asked: 'Where is the deterrent? ' The amount paid by criminals so far was revealed by an Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) request to the Environment Agency by the BBC. Fourteen orders have yet to be fully paid, leaving around £1. 4m still to be recovered.

The figures cover those larger illegal sites for which the Environment Agency is responsible, and do not include confiscation orders for smaller fly-tipping offences, which fall under the remit of local authorities. Baroness Sheehan, who chairs the House of Lords environment and climate change committee, said the figures obtained by the BBC showed 'consistent, decisive enforcement' was lacking.

'With clean-up costs at sites such as Kidlington far exceeding these sums, and enforcement still lagging, the taxpayer continues to foot the bill,' she said. The Environment Agency told the BBC that some of the unpaid confiscation orders were outstanding 'because they are still within the six-month payment period allowed for settlement' and the failure to pay was a matter for the courts.

Four men have so far been arrested in connection with the illegal waste tip at Kidlington. All have since been released while the investigation continues.