Three of the worst illegal rubbish dumps in England are set to be cleaned up at the taxpayers' expense as part of a national waste crime action plan launched by the government.

Huge tips in Wigan, Sheffield and Lancashire - together containing 48,000 tonnes of waste - have been earmarked for clearance by the Environment Agency. A 20,000-tonne site in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, is already being cleared at a cost of more than £9m.

Normally, the cost of clearing illegal sites on private land is met by the landowner.

The plan has been welcomed by locals near the tips but villagers near one of the so-called supersites uncovered by a recent BBC investigation are angry that site is not being cleared.

The three sites identified for clearance include a notorious dump in Bickershaw, near Wigan, which caught fire last summer, forcing schools nearby to close.

Residents living in the area have previously told the BBC they feel "forgotten about" as they are surrounded by rats, flies and an "unbearable smell".

Nicha Rowson, a beautician who has been forced to move her studio out of her home because of the stench, said the decision to clear up the site was "amazing news".

"I'm sure the community that I've been campaigning for is just as happy as I am with the news," she added.

However, she said it should not have taken so long for a decision to have been made, saying: "Money's been put before residents' physical and mental health."

She added that it "was not good enough" that the culprit had not yet been prosecuted and the taxpayer had now been left to pay for the clear-up.

The other two sites earmarked for clearance are a 20,000-tonne dump on an industrial site in Sheffield and a 10,000-tonne tip in Hyndburn, Lancashire.

The government, which has not yet said how much the clear-ups will cost, still has to carry out site-specific assessments to ensure the logistics of any clearance are feasible before they can start.

Earlier this year, the BBC revealed that among hundreds of illegal dumps operating across England, at least 11 are so-called "supersites", containing more than 20,000 tonnes.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of waste has been dumped on the land in Over, near Gloucester, and witnesses have told the BBC that, at its height, 30-50 vehicles were going onto the site to dump rubbish 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.

Charlie Coats, chairman of Highnam Parish Council, said he was "frustrated" by what he sees as a lack of action by the Environment Agency and was not surprised that Over is not mentioned in the government's new waste crime action plan, unveiled on Thursday.

"It doesn't surprise me because we had a meeting with the Agency and there was no mention about it," he told BBC News.

"In fact, they were singularly unhelpful and not particularly forthcoming or productive or positive in what they were saying.

"They have no sense of any degree of urgency about it at all."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the sites selected for clearance "represent the most egregious cases".

"We, of course, continue to tackle all sites through enforcement, restriction notices, permit action and disruption – all of which are being bolstered through the new action plan," she added.

Meanwhile, the government's action plan will also see local authorities given a rebate on any land fill tax if they clear up dumps in their areas.

It also announced it would give the EA an extra £45m over the next three years to "strengthen enforcement activity".

It said that officers would intervene earlier when larger waste sites were identified, using powers to shut down any illegal waste operation immediately, with no warning.

Any operator who ignored such a shut-down would face up to 51 weeks in prison.

Philip Duffy, the EA's chief executive, said waste crime "was evolving and our response needs to move up a gear".

"These measures will ensure we stay one step ahead of waste criminals and protect the communities, businesses and environment that they blight," he added.

Earlier in the week, the government had unveiled other proposals in the action plan, including steps to force flytippers to carry out up to 20 hours of unpaid work clearing up their own illegal dumps.

Drivers caught fly-tipping could also be given penalty points on their licences and illegal waste operators will be named and shamed by the Agency.

The plan also lays out Defra's intention to work with the insurance industry to create more comprehensive policies that will give better cover to farmers, businesses and landowners for the cost of clearing illegally dumped waste from their land.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said the action plan sent a clear message that waste criminals would "face the full consequence" of their illegal actions.

"Waste criminals have been damaging our communities, countryside, environment and economy for too long," she said.

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