Burnham announces plans to clean up worst three illegal waste dumps

Three of the country's worst illegal dumps are due to be cleaned up using taxpayers' money, the government has announced.

Sites in Kent, Surrey and West Yorkshire will be assessed for clearance, with Prime Minister Andy Burnham saying the "toxic dumps have blighted communities for too long".

Fines for waste offences will also rise from £300 to £5,000 to deter, catch, and punish those who dump illegally, and the Environment Agency will have more powers to seize assets bought with the proceeds of crime by those involved.

But opposition parties said illegal dumps were a small part of a much bigger issue with smaller scale fly-tipping and landfill all posing big problems for communities.

Burnham is looking to build on work started by his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer to tackle waste crime, with an action plan published in March detailing a series of measures - including using drones to map illegal waste sites.

Sir Keir's administration had announced that sites in Wigan, Sheffield and Lancashire would have government clean-ups - alongside Kidlington in Oxfordshire where removal of 20,000 tonnes of waste started in April .

The government said the new sites identified for clearance contain around 22,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste.

They are: Power Station Road, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent; Aymer Close, in Runnymede, Surrey; and Midland Road in Bradford, West Yorkshire.