City gets £20k to remove discarded gum on streets

The Chewing Gum Task Force provides funding to help councils remove unsightly gum from their streets

"Thoughtlessly discarded gum is unpleasant, unsightly and unacceptable. It has a negative effect on the local environment and is very difficult to remove."

Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal's thoughts on gum came as it was announced Wolverhampton has been given more than £20,000 to remove chewing gum from its streets.

Keep Britain Tidy said more than three quarters of UK streets are blighted by chewing gum, costing councils an estimated £7m to clean up each year.

The money could be used to purchase jet washer-style equipmment to remove gum from streets, as well as signage encouraging gum-chewers to bin it when finished.

"Our Street Scene teams work tirelessly to make our streets welcoming to residents and visitors alike and this extra funding will boost their efforts in tackling the problem of thoughtlessly discarded gum," Gakhal, cabinet member for resident services, said.

City of Wolverhampton Council has been awarded a grant of £20,155 from the Chewing Gum Task Force (CGTF), run by Keep Britain Tidy and funded by major chewing gum manufacturers.

Wolverhampton is one of 52 authorities across the country to have successfully applied in the latest round of funding.

Keep Britain Tidy says signage has proven to be effective at deterring people from throwing their used gum on the street

Keep Britain Tidy said last year, an area the equivalent of 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools was rid of gum thanks to the funding, and littering was reduced by an estimated 68% two months after measures had been implemented.

"Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces," said the charity's chief executive, Alison Ogden-Newton OBE.

"People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally and ultimately costs the public purse to clean it up."