Nick JacksonLocal Democracy Reporting Service
Wigan CouncilThe Environment Agency (EA) has been criticised by an MP for failing to remove “toxic” waste from a site close to a primary school in Greater Manchester.
Josh Simons questioned why the EA had decided to clear a large illegal waste dump near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, after months of saying it could not deal with a site at Bickershaw, within his Makerfield constituency.
In July, a fire broke out at the Wigan site, which has about 25,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste, and went on to burn for 10 days.
An EA spokesperson said new information had come to light about the risks at the Kidlington site, which meant they had taken the exceptional decision to clear it as soon as possible.
But Simons demanded: “What is not ‘exceptional’ about a toxic waste dump on fire right next to a primary school and a bunch of local businesses?”
The site on Bolton House Road, which is close to housing and Bickershaw C of E Primary School, has been set on fire on two occasions, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Addressing the EA in a post on social media, Simons said: “You seem to apply exceptional circumstances to middle class areas in Oxford but not working class towns in Wigan.
“When primary school kids are inhaling flames from a dump that’s on fire, declared as a major incident, why does that not count as an exceptional circumstance?”
LDRSSimons said the decision to spend millions of pounds on clearing the site in Oxfordshire “throws mud in the face of my working class constituents in Bickershaw, Wigan”.
An EA spokesperson said the perpetrators of these “miserable waste crimes” should pay the price, rather than taxpayers.
“In both Kidlington and Wigan, we are laser-focused on finding the offenders and bringing them to justice,” the spokesperson added.