1. History of Morpeth Litter Group and working as a team with the community
The Morpeth Litter Group was first set up in 2018 by a local Morpeth resident and Keep Britain Tidy Ambassador Dai Richards ‘Anyone can make a difference to reduce the scale of litter in our town, depending on their circumstances, each of our fantastic volunteers can spend anywhere between 1 – 30 hours per month picking litter.
They say there is strength in numbers; well this is certainly the case with the Morpeth Litter Group, where an army of like-minded volunteers have been slowly but steadily growing over the last three years to form a community network who are tackling the litter blight in our local area – head on!
The 150+ Morpeth Litter Group members come from all walks of life and span every age bracket from 20 – 80+ years old, but they all have one thing in common; they have zero tolerance of the litter discarded across the length and breadth of our beautiful town … and have decided to do something about it.
Community spirit is at the heart of the Morpeth Litter Group and over the last few years, we have also promoted the educational aspects of littering, highlighting the damage it causes to the environment and wildlife. We aim to always have a presence at local litter picking events with Morpeth Scouts, Girl Guides and KEVI, often loaning out equipment including an enormous 8ft litter picker which is great for reaching long forgotten debris buried deep in scrubs and bushes. The oldest reported piece of litter that has been found so far was a 25-year-old crisp packet – it showed little sign of any decomposition – which tells a story in itself!”
During the earlier litter blitz events of 2018/19, many litter grot spots in Morpeth were identified and tackled by the group, with many large items being found including anything from tyres, TVs, cookers, old scooters, traffic signs, For Sale signs and even an Atari console! Now the group has broken the back on the litter within these hot spots, thankfully the number found of these larger items has significantly reduced. Today, typical litter picking finds include large volumes of: plastic bottles, cigarette packets/butts, doggy pool bags, aluminum cans, tin foil balls, nitrous oxide gas canisters, crisp packets, chewing gum (yes this is classed as litter) and of course not forgetting the new breed of litter which is helping to deepen the national litter crisis – the dreaded disposal masks, wet wipes and rubber gloves. The areas that constantly need clearing of these kind of items are Newgate Street, Newbridge Street, Market Street, Morrisons car Park, the path alongside Morrisons, the burn along Tommy’s field and Stanley Terrace.
In Spring 2023 – Keep Britain Tidy opened the national campaign to fight the Cigarette butts litter. Morpeth Litter Group’s KBT Ambassadors have been instrumental in this campaign, having worked with Morpeth Town Council in 2019 to upgrade as many blue bins we could within our available budget to cutout the “useless” cigarette trays and a new receptable that collects the butts. Only about 10% bins have been converted, so still a long way to go, but you will see the difference near a bin that does not have a cigarette receptable – see the blue bin on the south side of Chantry pedestrian bin – 100’s of butts on the floor. Butts on the ground are destined for our watercourses and ultimately the food chain” – so this battle against Butts is important for the wellbeing of our children!
Working with the Northumberland County Council ‘Environment Team’ and Morpeth’s own ‘Keep Britain Tidy Ambassador’, we have included several useful contacts to help with winning the Keep Morpeth Tidy battle!
To find out how you can get involved in the Morpeth Litter Group either Town Blitzes, STREET blitzes, Adopt a Street, or ADOPT a BIN initiative visit Facebook @morpethlittergroup or email morpethlittergroup@gmail.com
2. NCC REPORT a FLYTIPPING Incident
Please use this link to request a clean up of fly tipping, or any large items found during your walks:
https://online.northumberland.gov.uk/citizenportal/form.aspx?form=587
3. NCC: Request Litter Removal
Please use this link to request a clean up of smaller scale general litter discovered during your walks:
https://online.northumberland.gov.uk/citizenportal/form.aspx?form=580
4. NCC: Request a Litter Picker
To request your own Litter Picker please email the NCC Environment Team, using the email address below:
highwaysandneighbourhoodservices@northumberland.gov.uk
5. Anti Fly Tipping Association
New regulations on the carriage of waste mean that any tradesman who removes any kind of waste from your property has to hold a Waste Carriers License. Check if a company is registered via AFTA website: