AN ILLEGAL dump next to a travellers' site will cost taxpayers £858,000 to clear up.

For two decades flytippers have used land near the Redbridge recycling centre, off Abingdon Road, Oxford, to discard everything from building waste containing asbestos, to fridges and mattresses.

The Redbridge Hollow dumping ground has grown to 926 square metres - bigger than Oxford Ice Rink - and is infested with rats.

Now Oxfordshire County Council, which owns the site, has decided enough is enough.

It has blocked off the area to prevent more tipping and is planning to remove the mountain of waste - at a cost of £858,000. That is close to three times as much as last year's entire countywide clean-up bill for flytipping.

Kennington county and parish councillor Bob Johnston, in whose ward the site falls, said he had been fighting for the rubbish to be removed for 15 years.

He said the dump had grown significantly since the travelling community moved to Redbridge Hollow in the 1990s, although he insisted there was no evidence its residents were responsible.

Because toxic waste like asbestos had been dumped there, specialist contractors would have to be taken on to clear it. "That's why it's so expensive," he said.

He added: "Residents can't wait for this appalling mess to be cleaned up."

Mr Johnston believes illegal dumping is on the increase because in recent years the cost of disposing of building waste has risen dramatically.

Roger Bellson, the county council's executive member for sustainable development, said the clean-up cash could have been spent on community facilities or public services.

He said: "We are using taxpayers' money to clear something that shouldn't be there in the first place. But it's a ghastly site and it's our responsibility to clean it up."

An estimated 200 travellers live in 16 plots at Redbridge Hollow. A spokesman for the site welcomed the council's plans - but stressed the travelling community itself had not been responsible for the flytipping.

"We don't use the dump and we never will," he said.

"We'd like to use the site for more plots. We need more homes. Land is going to waste and the rats are unbelievable."

It could be three years before the rubbish itself is completely removed.

The site could then be planted with trees.