Massive litter clean-up is binned 'after the council said the bags volunteers have been using for years won't be collected'

Published: 01:25, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 01:25, 17 August 2026 A huge litter clean-up had to be scrapped after a council said the effort would have collected rubbish in the wrong type of bin bags. Volunteers in Newport, Gwent, have been trawling their streets armed with bin bags to tidy their neighbourhood for years but have now been blocked by 'petty' council orders. Bureaucrats in Newport city council's waste department told the volunteers they had to use red branded bags from Keep Wales Tidy, a national environment charity. But after the crew in the Pill docklands area asked for the branded bags they were met with silence, forcing them to abandon the clean-up. Paul Murphy, founder of Pride in Pill, said the group had been using black bin bags until some years ago when the council asked them to use red bags, which they did. But he said the red-tape obsessives recently told him the new bags were not good enough because 'they're not the red bags from Keep Wales Tidy'. Mr Murphy had bought 2,000 non-branded red bags which the council had told him could not be used. And he has had no response from the charity since asking it for branded bin bags. Volunteers in the Pill docklands area of Newport, Gwent, had planned a litter clean-up to improve their streets But bin bullies at Newport city council said rubbish could only be collected in 'approved' bags Paul Murphy, founder of Pride in Pill, said he had been trying to contact Keep Wales Tidy to order approved bin bags for a week but had received no response 'I've been trying to get them from Keep Wales Tidy for the last week, but I've had no response.' He said the council had been little help and was unable to give him even a contact number for Keep Wales Tidy. Mr Murphy added if bag supplies were restricted, it could impact the amount of litter volunteers were able to collect. 'Where I do a litter pick and collect 30 or 40 bags, if Keep Wales Tidy only gives me 20 bags, then I can only do 20 bags of rubbish. 'So, I've got a funny feeling they're going to cut me down from doing a litter pick from 40-odd bags to about 20 bags. 'But at the moment I can't do a litter pick until I get hold of Keep Wales Tidy because I'm not guaranteed Newport City Council will pick those bags up.' The volunteer group's existing red bags, 2,000 of which were ordered after a previous council diktat, are no longer acceptable according to the authority Residents criticised the council as 'petty' online and said it should focus on more pressing problems. Pride in Pill said it had spent a week trying to contact Keep Wales Tidy but had received no response. Not to be defeated, the volunteers pledged to use the red bags they already have if the bin bullies do not respond. The council said it valued volunteers' work and said more than 150 clean-ups had gone ahead since 2022. But it said 'approved' bin bags helped distinguish waste collected by community groups from fly-tipped rubbish.