A GROUP of residents from Overton are appealing to the Welsh Government to do more to prevent littering after collecting 200 bags from rural roads in the last two months.

Travellers through Overton in the last few weeks have been met with red bags of litter waiting to be collected along the roadsides.

Wendy Lunt, from Overton, has been collecting litter for a number of years, and was joined by fellow residents.

After collecting around 200 bags of litter since the beginning of the year, Wendy and her group have declared 'enough is enough' and now wish to make their voices heard in the halls of the Welsh Senedd.

"From January 1 we've probably got 200 bags of litter," said Wendy. "And you can go back and the litter's growing back already.

"This act of littering has got to stop as its damaging for the environment and our future.

"Over the last 30 years more and more things have been made out of plastic.

"I think we estimated 25,000 items of litter thrown out over two years.

"It takes one second to throw it out your car, it takes hours to pick it up.

"Every lane round, the hedges and ditches are filled with litter, the people that throw it don't care and if we keep telling them that we're picking it up, nobody cares.

"But if we say we're going to stop littering, people are more likely to listen."

Wendy says she wants the Welsh Government to take a stand on littering and discourage those who litter, rather than praising those who do the cleaning up.

"Were trying to say people should stop throwing litter out of their cars," said Wendy. "The Welsh Senedd has announced they're going to stop littering.

"It is a massive problem; we've got to put an emphasis on putting a stop to littering.

"If we can encourage people to write to the welsh government.

"We don't quite know how big the issue is, but they have launched a consultation on the issue."

Lesley Griffiths, Welsh Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs recently called on everyone to 'play their part' in eliminating litter and fly-tipping from Wales.

In January she launched 'A Litter and Fly-tipping Free Wales', which outlines how the Welsh Government intends to crack down on the issue, while inviting anyone in Wales to submit their own ideas on how to tackle the problem.

She said "There are no excuses for littering and fly-tipping. I want to see an end to these antisocial behaviours which are a blight on our streets, beaches and countryside, with the cost of clearing often borne by the public."

Wendy welcomed the launch of the consultation and encouraged resident to speak to their local MPs and assembly members to tell them about the issue, both in Overton and nationally.

"This is your chance to help solve the problem," added Wendy.

"If you are disgusted by the amount of litter that you see thrown out of vehicles every day in Overton's surrounding areas then please email your views and ideas to your MP or MS to put a stop to people breaking the law by throwing toxic, non-biodegradable waste, that looks horrific and is polluting the environment and poisoning the water ditches, streams and rivers.

"Or go to web page gov.wales/litter-and-fly-tipping-prevention-plan-wales and click the green 'Respond online' button to give your opinion."

The consultation runs until March 25.