A council leader has said more than £1 million has been approved to clear an illegal waste dump in Leicestershire.

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) met last week to agree the funding, which will see it pay up to £1.3m to clear the tip on land off the A47 Leicester Road between Hinckley and Earl Shilton.

The site had previously been touted for a crematorium, but HBBC scrapped those plans and instead hopes to sell the land to a developer.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the council's Liberal Democrat leader Stuart Bray said: "It's going to cost me, and everybody else, an absolute fortune, and the council is the victim."

Bray said: "This isn't some Jack the lad dumping a few tyres and a bag of rubbish because they couldn't get to the tip.

"This is organised and serious organised crime. They brought tonnes and tonnes of stuff in a couple of nights.

"They brought heavy machinery on the site to break through barriers and move earth. It's a crime that's going to cost people. It's going to cost me, I pay council tax."

Council officials described the waste, found on 5 August, as "serious, organised crime", and the Environment Agency (EA) confirmed a criminal investigation was ongoing.

Bray said the council was also seeking government funding to help towards the clean-up.

The site was initially touted as a crematorium and was approved in January 2019 but in December last year, councillors voted to scrap the £5m scheme and instead sell the site to a developer.

The EA said the dump was a "sickening case of large-scale illegal waste dumping".

It added: "Our criminal investigation is ongoing, and with officers attending to assess the types and quantities of waste on site.

"We are working closely with Hinckley and Bosworth Council and other partners to do everything in our power to find those responsible and bring them to justice."

A spokesperson confirmed no-one had yet been arrested.

A HBBC spokesperson said: "We will support the Environment Agency's investigation and pursue every available route - including the Proceeds of Crime Act - to recover the costs from those responsible rather than taxpayers.

"We will also press for the strongest possible penalties."

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