The clearance of a notorious illegal waste "supersite" in Kent has been completed after 15 months at a cost of £15m to the taxpayer.
The dump at Hoads Wood, near Ashford, which is on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) known for rare plants and wildlife, was targeted by criminals who dumped nearly 40,000 tonnes of waste over six months in 2023.
It was the first supersite in England to have central government money spent on its clear-up, with work at two other sites bringing the total taxpayer's bill to £26m.
The government said the completion of works on Friday showed "just how serious" it was about tackling waste crime and restoring affected countryside.
The Environment Agency-led clean-up operation began in June 2025 and has seen 2,500 lorry loads of waste removed from the woods by specialist contractors to a landfill site in Essex.
The countryside charity CPRE Kent, residents and Kent Wildlife Trust joined forces in 2024 to campaign for the clearance of the waste, which was piled up to 15ft (4.6m) in places.
They welcomed the work's completion but some are concerned the criminal gangs may return to dump waste.
One of the organisers of the 'Rescue Hoads Wood' campaign said the cleared site would now be "catnip" to both organised gangs and opportunist fly-tippers.
He told the BBC: "Our biggest fear now is people are going to be able to access this site and start dumping on it again and unless the authorities are quick it will happen again."
The Environment Agency (EA) said it was extending the current restriction order in place that prohibits access and had dug ditches to make the site inaccessible to waste trucks.
Matthew Higginson, the EA's area environmental manager, said the regulator, police and local authorities had a joint "trigger plan" in place.
"That will bring all law enforcement partners to work together closely and much more quickly to stop anything like this happening in the future," he said.
Meanwhile, there remain conservation concerns over the future of the countryside site.
Ian Rickards, area manager for Kent Wildlife Trust, said it would take decades for ancient woodland species to return.
But he added: "It won't recover as it was but there are benefits to this. You've now got open space within the woodland. You've got wet bodies. You've got ponds. You've got these piles of dead wood as well.
"All of this will start creating, collecting and attracting wildlife back into here so it'll be fascinating to see how the site recovers."
In August, the government launched a national action plan to tackle waste crime, which it estimates costs the country more than £1bn every year.
But Hoads Wood campaigners have criticised the authorities for not acting quickly enough when the illegal tipping was first reported at the Kent site.
At the height of the activity in the summer of 2023, locals said there were as many as 20 to 30 trucks per day dumping waste at the ancient bluebell woodland.
The EA's Matthew Higginson said the agency did respond quickly to reports of the dumping but had to spend time investigating "to make sure we had a robust case to take to court in order to get a restriction order which closed the site".
Investigations into who was behind the dumping are ongoing, with three arrests made in February 2025.
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."
