{"id":1040805,"date":"2026-06-21T12:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1040805\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T12:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:11:25","slug":"fed-up-residents-in-st-pauls-furious-at-ongoing-problems-with-rubbish-on-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1040805\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed up residents in St Pauls furious at ongoing problems with rubbish on streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fed up residents of St Pauls are exasperated at a continued lack of action from Bristol Waste<\/a> as they are left to deal with overflowing bins and rubbish littered all over their streets.<\/p>\n

In less than half an hour one day this week, Emma Reynolds \u2013 a co-leader of the Better Streets St Pauls campaign \u2013 and willing volunteer Nicole collected two sacks\u2019 worth of waste from just one side of one road. The bags contained such delights as used sanitary pads, needles and clothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just can\u2019t take it,\u201d Emma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been told they clear our side streets three times a week\u2026 (but) none of it\u2019s cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve made an agreement that they\u2019ll regularly clear around these MRCs (mini recycling centres) and that they will regularly clear the streets of litter and waste, and that is not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason I\u2019m doing this is because I don\u2019t like the fact that children walk through this daily, and this is their childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of waste in St Pauls is deposited in mini recycling centres, essentially communal bins, which were introduced in the area in 2011. The MRCs regularly overflow, leaving rubbish strewn all over roads.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A lot of the area’s issues are due to poorly managed mini recycling centres(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

The team behind Better Streets want these to be emptied more regularly, and for the council and Bristol Waste – which is owned by the authority – to take a more proactive approach when it comes to cleaning the roads in St Pauls and responding to reports of fly tipping. They have been campaigning for change for over two years.<\/p>\n

Bristol Waste held multiple community consultations on the matter in March, and despite occasional improvements there has been no meaningful overhaul to the way waste is managed in St Pauls.<\/p>\n

While some illegal fly-tipping does occur in the area, Emma said the rubbish lining the streets was mostly the result of overflowing communal bins not being regularly and properly cleared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you feel really angry,\u201d Emma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you feel like you\u2019re being shut down, you\u2019re being blamed and you\u2019re being lied to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma said she had heard rumours that the council may be considering moving people in the area to sack collections. She said that wouldn’t work for people, like her, who lived in small flats.<\/p>\n

Across Cheltenham Road in Redland, Bristol Waste has installed large communal bins in areas dominated by student accommodation. Those bins are emptied daily during term time.<\/p>\n

Emma said the state of the streets in St Pauls often made her think of moving. She pointed out that should not be the case in a city like Bristol in 2026.<\/p>\n

Bristol Waste is still looking for a top boss following the unexplained departure of managing director Richard Williams in March. Since then, the company has operated under what it calls a \u2018tripartite leadership arrangement\u2019, comprising operations director Ricky Gayfer, people director Ceri Hodgkinson, and finance director Kevin Hayter.<\/p>\n

Bristol City Council<\/a> and Bristol Waste did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In March, a Bristol Waste spokesperson said the company was working on an \u2018effective improvement plan\u2019 for St Pauls, but there was little evidence of that having had much of an impact during Emma and Nicole\u2019s litter picking venture on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeedback from community members highlighted that challenges vary between streets and even sections of streets,\u201d the spokesperson said earlier this year. \u201cIt was clear from people\u2019s feedback that what might work for one street might not be right for another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information gathered from these sessions will now be used to pull together an effective improvement plan that reflects the needs of St Paul\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with all local authorities, Bristol City Council face financial constraints and challenges, but we are focussed on improving cleanliness using current resources and will also look to assess where additional investment is needed for further improvements. We are determined to work together with the community, residents and businesses to create an improvement plan for St Paul\u2019s focused on finding the best possible solutions for waste, recycling and street cleanliness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fed up residents of St Pauls are exasperated at a continued lack of action from Bristol Waste as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1040806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,393,4884,20077,11561,16,15],"class_list":["post-1040805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-bristol","tag-bristol-city-council","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-redland","tag-st-pauls","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116788036058876139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}