Montgomeryshire AM Russell George has been talking to businesses and shoppers in Newtown on Saturday afternoon to find out how the new carrier bag charge is going down.
The new regulations came into force on Saturday and Mr George said: “All the businesses I have spoken to in Newtown have said they have had a positive response from the public, and the amount of bags leaving shops has reduced considerably”
The Welsh Government claimed last week that they were confident that their awareness campaign had been successful and that businesses had been informed, but Mr George has cast doubt over the amount of information retailers have received from the government.
“Businesses told me that they had not received information from the Welsh Government and many independent shop owners had relied on customers telling them”
“Quite a number of small businesses were keeping records of the amount of bags sold, and were unaware that this was only necessary for businesses which employed more than 10 staff, other businesses did not realise the charge applied to paper bags also”
“Although I fully welcome this new requirement, the simple fact of the matter is that there are retailers throughout Wales which have received absolutely no information from the government. Despite being affected by the charge, they still have no official guidance. They’re completely in the dark and that’s unacceptable. The introduction of the charge was delayed from April to October, so businesses could fully get to grips with the regulations, yet the awareness campaign only started in mid-August and businesses have not received the information packs which the government claims have been sent out”
Marc Rees, Manager at “Fuze” in Newtown said: “People have accepted the new law and we only sold 2 bags today, we would have given out many more bags on a normal Saturday”.
