A campaign group is lobbying the Government for a ban on the distribution of the London Paper and London Lite reports The Guardian.

Project Freesheet has posted a petition on the Downing Street e-petitions website to demand an end to distribution of the papers due mainly to the amount of litter it says they produce.

A spokesman for the group said “London Lite and the London Paper use over 1,000 distributors between them to hand out close to 1m free newspapers every day. The councils of London would need a whopping 4,000 extra recycling bins to capture just half of these free newspapers that are given away”

The papers which are supplied by many writers,photographers and agencies have, it is said made steps to combat litter and waste, by offering to buy and manage 32 recycling bins in the capital.

However Westminster Council have threatened to slash freesheet distribution points in certain central areas of the Capital, as well as requiring distributors to collect discarded papers and sweep up within a 100m radius at the end of their shift if a voluntary arrangement between interested parties cannot be agreed.