Council gets £27k to remove gum from streets

A district council has received £27,500 to remove chewing gum from its streets.

Wyre Forest District councillor Ben Brookes said the funding meant the council could "get to work cleaning up and, just as importantly, help remind people to bin their gum rather than drop it".

Keep Britain Tidy said the cost of cleaning up chewing gum was estimated at £7m a year.

The project, named the Chewing Gum Task Force, has been funded by a £10m investment from gum manufacturers, spread over five years.

It has awarded 54 councils grants totalling £1.585 million, which could help clean an estimated 500,000m2 of pavements.

City of Wolverhampton Council had been awarded a grant of £20,155.

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive, said: "Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces.

"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."

Brookes added that clearing up the gum would "make a big difference to how our district looks and feels".

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