North Benfleet residents host litter pick in protest against mess

Sheelagh Pegg said there was "no point waiting" for the council to take action on litter

Residents clubbed together to host a litter pick amid concerns their area was turning into a "third-world country".

People living in North Benfleet, Essex, said Basildon Council's "unsuitable" new recycling bags were blowing open and spilling rubbish.

The fresh recycling bags are sealable at the top.

Kevin Blake, the council's member for waste enforcement, previously said the change would reduce litter.

The local authority's new rules, which came into force from 27 November 2023, meant residents must split their rubbish into six different sections.

The waste would be collected on a fortnightly basis, replacing a weekly black sack service across the borough.

It came after residents took to Lower Avenue on Wednesday morning to tidy their road up.

Residents living in North Benfleet carried out a litter pick on Lower Avenue

Sheelagh Pegg, of Bowers Gifford and North Benfleet Parish Council, said there was "no point waiting" until the borough council took action.

"If it's a windy day, everything in that bag just spills out and ends up all over the road. We can't stay with these bins," she said.

"If you went through the village last week before the dustmen came, the rubbish was throughout the whole of the village."

Another resident, who did not give her name, told the BBC she felt the bags were "unsuitable", adding that walking her dog in Lower Avenue was no longer "pleasurable".

A Basildon Council spokeswoman said: "Our new waste services launched on 27 November and over 90 per cent of households have done their bit to increase recycling and stop waste going to landfill. "The new containers will reduce the amount of litter on our streets through reducing split bags and encourage more recycling. If residents recycle all they can, there should be very little left to go to landfill."