Pride In Pill, Newport haven’t heard from council over future

Pride In Pill was set up in the city back in 2014 and since then, has become well-known in Newport and beyond for their work picking up litter, feeding the homeless, providing Christmas presents to sick children and more.

The group even received an MBE from the late Queen and a coronation honour from King Charles.

But last month the group announced it may be forced to disband due to ever-changing health and safety council regulations.

Pride in Pill started life in 2014 as a litter picking group, but now focus on all kinds of community issues (Image: Pride in Pill)

Chairman of Pride in Pill Paul Murphy had previously told the Argus that Pride in Pill were being "drip fed" the council regulations on a job-by-job basis.

"There is still not really a final version of these rules. It changes every time," he said.

This, he said, has made it difficult for Pride in Pill to organise any of their usual large scale litter picks.

"Nothing was ever set in stone," he said.

And now, in a thread on social media platform X - or Twitter, as everyone except Elon Musk calls it - Pride in Pill said it had been met with silence when they contact Newport City Council over the issue.

The group even received an MBE from the late Queen (Image: Pride in Pill)

The full tweet from Pride in Pill said: “Two weeks ago today, Pride in Pill’s chairman Paul Murphy wrote to Jane Mudd, leader of Newport City Council, and a number of other senior councillors and staff, to inform them of our decision to suspend our environmental cleanup work.

“In that letter we offered to work with the council to solve the issues which caused us to take this decision. We have not yet received a reply to our letter. Our partnership with the city council stretches back nearly ten years and we have achieved a huge amount in that time, so this is very disappointing.

“The city council often says how much it values and supports the work of volunteer-led community groups like PiP. Just this week Jane Mudd, in a speech to local business leaders, talked about how Newport’s wealth lies in the power of its communities.

“At the moment we’re not seeing those words backed up by action. The test of a strong working partnership is that the partners work together is tough times, not just when things are going well. Our invitation to Jane and her colleagues remains open. Talk to us, and let’s sort it.”

Newport City Council declined to comment.