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Andy Burnham is ‘seeking answers’ over how 25,000 tonnes of waste was dumped in a Wigan village illegally.

The dump, on Bolton House Road in Bickershaw, started building up in January, neighbours said. In July, the ‘toxic waste’ went up in flames, with the days’-long inferno forcing a primary school to close.

Wigan council secured an extension to a closure order at the end of October, so no-one can access the site. A clean-up could cost £4.5m, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands.

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Now Andy Burnham has said he is probing authorities on how the situation was allowed to happen.

“It’s a question you would first have to put to the Environment Agency,” he told BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday

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