The roads around Hoad’s Wood are typically quiet, used mainly by residents of the nearby villages and hamlets west of Ashford, Kent. So when trucks began rolling in last summer and dumping lorry loads of waste into the ancient woodland, it did not escape the notice of Yasmin and John, who are in their 70s and own around 36 acres of the site.

As a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) it is a criminal offence to cause environmental damage, so the couple expected swift action when they alerted the authorities.

Instead they watched as, over the next six months, lorries made hundreds of journeys into the site. “Every half hour we would see one going, one coming back,” says Yasmin. “We warned everyone we could think of.”

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