PEOPLE who use bin bags because they have no room for wheelie bins or who have medical reasons why they can’t use heavy bins claim they are being discriminated against by Wiltshire Council because they now have to buy their own bags.

Until the beginning of May, Wiltshire issued free orange or purple bags to homes in the former Kennet district without wheelie bins, a system they inherited from Kennet.

But in other parts of Wiltshire including Salisbury the district councils, before they merged as one unitary authority, all had different arrangements with some issuing free bags while others made a charge.

Now, for the sake of conformity, Wiltshire Council has told households it will no longer be providing free bags and people will have to buy their own on which they will have to put labels provided by the council.

Retired teacher and carer Jane Condon, of Kennet Place, in Marlborough, said the council could not be saving much because the printed labels would have been expensive and they had to post them out to every home using bags.

She said: “I emailed Wiltshire Council to ask why we were being singled out and they replied justifying this that in other parts of the county they have been doing this for years and we have to have a harmonious system for everyone.”

Another Marlborough pensioner Steve Pascall, from The Green, formerly chairman of West Berkshire Council who retired to live in the town, said: “The whole thing is just ridiculous. “If they want to treat us all the same, why do they issue other houses with wheelie bins which are free?”

Mr Pascall said he wondered if making one section of the community buy their own rubbish receptacles contradicted the human rights legislation that says everyone has to be treated the same.

Mr Pascall said that asking people to buy their own bags was a charter for fly tippers to go around leaving black bags outside homes where they see other bags waiting for collection.

A resident of Urchfont, near Devizes, who did not want to be named, said the first she knew about the new arrangement was having the letter from Wiltshire Council put through her letter box with a number of stickers.

She said: “I would love to have a wheelie bin because I have a bad back but the topography of where I live makes it impossible.

“To now have to supply my own bags is an insult.

“I pay my council tax and am being discriminated against just because I haven’t room for a wheelie bin.”

Wiltshire Council spokeswoman Mia Fairfield said: “The council has reviewed the previous arrangements offered to residents unable to use a wheeled bin for their household waste.

“In three of the four previous district areas, residents were provided with labels which they attached to refuse sacks that they bought themselves. In the east of the county residents were issued with coloured sacks.

“Providing labels is the most cost effective option for both the council and council tax payer, as the labels are less than a quarter of the cost of refuse sacks. By making this change those residents who use refuse sacks rather than a wheeled bin for their household waste will receive the same service across the county.”