UK Construction and Law
Court order seals Gloucester waste site for six months as agency widens use of restriction powers
By Staff Writer | 17 August 2026
A Restriction Order obtained by the Environment Agency on 12 August makes it a criminal offence to enter or dump waste at Severnside Farm in Gloucester, after a joint operation in July installed 84 concrete blocks to close the site off. Criminal investigations continue.
The Environment Agency has obtained a court order sealing an illegal waste site at Severnside Farm in Gloucester. The Restriction Order, granted on 12 August, runs for six months and makes it a criminal offence for anyone to enter the site and deposit waste there at any time.
The order follows a joint operation by the agency, Gloucester City Council and the police in Gloucester on 22 and 23 July, in which 84 concrete blocks were installed at the site to prevent further waste being illegally deposited. The agency says it will monitor the site with its partners, and that it will take whatever further action is needed while criminal investigations continue.
The criminals involved in dumping this waste have caused misery for the community and the environment. This order shows we are doing everything to stop the reckless illegal handling and disposal of waste. Working with our partners we've shut down the site and secured it while criminal investigations continue.
Nick Green, Area Environment Manager, Environment Agency
An order against the land, not an operator
The mechanism matters. On the agency's description, the prohibition applies to anyone entering and dumping at the site, at any time, for the life of the order. It controls the land rather than a named operator, which closes the gap that enforcement against individuals alone leaves behind: a site that stays physically and legally open to the next person with a loaded tipper.
The agency describes the Gloucester action as part of a wider push on waste crime under its 10 Point Plan, which includes expanding the use of restriction notices and orders to prevent illegal dumping. James Dykes, the city council's enforcement and regulation manager, said the council wanted to send a clear message that it would act against those responsible, and the neighbourhood policing team in Gloucester said it would continue working with both partners against illegal dumping.
Why compliant operators should care
Every illegal site in operation is priced directly against the gate fees of the compliant ones. Skip operators, demolition contractors and waste carriers who weigh in at licensed facilities are undercut by whoever will take material for cash and tip it on farmland, and the duty of care sits with the producer of the waste all the way down that chain. An order that seals the land, publicly and for six months, is a cheaper and faster intervention than waiting for a prosecution to conclude.
Six months buys the investigation time. What follows when the order lapses is the question the agency's expanding use of these powers will eventually have to answer, and for now the blocks, the monitoring and the open criminal inquiry are the whole of the answer on this site.