A COMMUNITY group braved the inclement weather to fill 100 bags of litter and remove 64 needles in part of Newport at the weekend.
Pride in Pill volunteers work on improving Pillgwenlly and other parts of Newport through charity work, projects, litter pickups and more.
They tackled the stretch of the River Usk between Newport Castle and Shaftesbury Park, and cleared up the former Sainsbury’s site which group founder, Paul Murphy, described as ‘a magnet for litter and fly tipping.’
Five Pride in Pill volunteers were involved and - despite the rain - filled 100 bags with rubbish and collected many larger items which has been fly-tipped.
Volunteers are trained to safely remove needles and drug litter, and cleared up 64 needles. This is an improvement from a year ago when they discovered 200 needles in the area.
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Mr Murphy said: “There’s still lots to do in this area, so we’ll make another visit soon.
“Our partners at Newport City Council did a great job of taking everything away; we couldn’t do this without them.
“Earlier in the year, the city council’s environmental health team arranged for the landowners the Fear Group to spend £2,000 on a clean-up here. This was just a few months ago, but it was only a short term fix.
“A longer term solution is needed. Ideally, fences need to be put in place to deter fly-tipping, or CCTV be installed, and the perpetrators fined. A request has been made to the city council to install litter bins on the outskirts of the site, which will also help a little.”
Pride in Pill have previously cleared 500 bags of litter from the banks of the River Usk and have adapted to coronavirus by socially distancing, wearing masks and regularly sanitizing.
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