A historic woodland buried beneath a 40,000-tonne pile of illegal waste has been cleared after a 15-month operation costing around £15.5million.
It took 2,500 lorry-loads to clear the household and construction waste at the beauty spot at Hoad’s Wood in Ashford.
Designated as a ‘site of special scientific interest’, fears were growing that the waste could poison the ground and local rivers, driving away the rare species that call it home.
The privately owned bluebell woodland was being targeted by organised criminals who piled waste up to 15 feet high before authorities shut the operation down.
The Environment Agency began a criminal investigation in 2023, and, working with the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and Kent Police to track down suspects, three men were arrested.
In 2024, residents reported to the authorities that up to 20-30 trucks a day were dumping illegal waste in the wood from July 2023, and earlier cases of illegal activity were reported in 2020.
The Rescue Hoad’s Wood campaign group received backing from a number of charities including Kent Wildlife Trust, South East River Trust, the Woodland Trust and the likes of TV presenter and naturalist Mr Packham.
The clean-up began in June 2025, with more than 50 specialist workers taking part in the removal of the heaps of rubbish.
The horrific pictures showed the rubbish piled 15 feet high in some parts of the beauty spot
A variety of birds breed in the wood, including nightingales, woodcocks, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers and several kinds of tits and warblers
It took 2,500 lorry-loads to clear the household and construction waste at the beauty spot at Hoad’s Wood in Ashford
The clean-up began in June 2025, with more than 50 specialist workers taking part in the removal of the heaps of rubbish
The Environment Agency said public access to the site will remain restricted to give nature space and time to recover.
Matthew Higginson, Environment Agency area environmental manager who has been working in waste at the regulator for more than a decade, said the site at Hoad’s Wood was ‘arguably the worst waste dump I’ve seen’.
‘This was appalling,’ he said. ‘When we first got to the site, everything was grey where the waste had been dumped.’
The smell was ‘quite revolting’, trees had died, and black liquid from rotting waste was running into the environment, he added.
‘The look of it was bad, but the smell and the complete scale of environmental impact was quite staggering.’
Hoad’s Wood is known for being home to a range of wildlife, with birds like nightingales, woodcocks, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers, and several kinds of tits and warblers all known to live in the forest.
Moths and butterflies – including two nationally rare species – have also been well documented in the area.
Hoad’s Wood is also where the body of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, murdered by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, from Deal in Kent, was found in 2021.
The county has become somewhat of a hotspot for illegal fly-tipping in recent years, with tonnes of rubbish also having been dumped on Sheppey Beach, which is also a site of special scientific interest.
As a protected area, Mr Higginson said the clean-up was complex, taking place in a ‘dynamic environment’ that required different organisations, authorities, project managers, waste professionals, archaeologists and nature experts to all work together.
They all approached the operation with the aim of giving nature ‘the best possible ways to try and recover’, he said.
This included clearing out natural ditches to allow water to flow back through the area and creating interconnected ponds where diggers had to remove pockets of buried waste, both encouraging a wet woodland environment to flourish.
Teams also imported foliage from trees so that it would rot down and help condition the soil to further support plants.
‘At the start it was very hard to envisage what the site was going to look like at the end because of the state that it was in,’ Mr Higginson said.
‘So the position that we got it to is really, really satisfying,’ he said, adding that local residents and campaign groups, who visited the site this week, have praised the work.
A view of Hoads Wood in Ashford, Kent, following an operation to clear thousands of tonnes of illegally dumped waste
The Environment Agency said public access to the site will remain restricted to give nature space and time to recover
Designated as a ‘site of special scientific interest’, fears were growing that the waste could poison the ground and local rivers, driving away the rare species that call it home
The Environment Agency began a criminal investigation in 2023, and, working with the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and Kent Police to track down suspects, three men were arrested
The bluebell woodland is a designated Sight of Special Scientific Interest, but there are fears the waste could poison the ground and rivers, driving away the rare species that call it home
Pictured: vast piles of waste and large patches of blue water could be seen swamping the area
It comes as part of a wider Government crackdown on waste crime, which has soared across the country in recent years.
Several high-profile dumps – including Hoad’s Wood as well as Bolton House in Wigan, Kidlington in Oxfordshire and Midland Road in Bradford – have sparked a public outcry.
These sites have been prioritised for clean-up operations because of their scale, risk to nearby communities, environmental damage, and links to persistent non-compliance and organised waste crime, the Environment Agency said.
A £6million operation to clear the Kidlington site, located near the River Cherwell, was completed in August.
Ministers have announced a series of measures such as the increasing use of drones, giving mayors and the police a bigger role, increasing fines for illegal dumping and providing regulators with more powers to confiscate assets from waste criminals to pay for their actions.
A new Waste Crime Crackdown Group, chaired by Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle, will also aim to bring regulators and law enforcement together to dismantle criminal operations.
The Environment Agency urges anyone with information that may assist the Hoad’s Wood investigation to call the 24-hour hotline on 0800 807060 or report it anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111, or their website.
Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said: ‘This government is taking action on the illegal waste sites that have blighted communities.
‘Handing this ancient woodland back to local people, alongside our nationwide clean-up of waste sites, shows just how serious we are about restoring the places people love.
‘We will find those responsible and make sure they face the consequences.’
