Towns' sticky problem targeted by £26k grant

Efforts to tackle the problem of chewing gum stuck to pavements in two West Yorkshire towns have been boosted with the award of a £26,450 clean-up grant.

The money from the Chewing Gum Task Force would be spent on a one-off deep clean in Heckmondwike and Marsden town centres, according to Kirklees Council.

The task force was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and is run by the Keep Britain Tidy charity, but is funded by chewing gum manufacturers.

Last year, a total of 16,503 pieces of gum litter were removed from streets in Huddersfield and Dewsbury following a £25,500 investment from the task force.

Kirklees Council is one of 52 local authorities across the country which successfully applied for a grant this year to help efforts to clean chewing gum off pavements.

Councillor Tyler Hawkins, cabinet member for highways and waste, said: "We are delighted to have been awarded further funding to help us tackle the problem of gum litter across our towns and villages in Kirklees.

"Removing chewing gum litter will get these areas looking their best and complement our ongoing programme of regeneration work within our town centres.

"With this clean-up and new signage, we hope it will make potential litterbugs think twice and help keep our home tidy."

According to Keep Britain Tidy, about 77% of England's streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum, while estimates have suggested the annual cost to UK councils of cleaning up chewing gum litter is about £7m.

Allison Ogden-Newton, Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive, said: "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."

Figures from Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – have shown that in areas which benefited from the first and second year of Chewing Gum Task Force funding, gum littering dropped by up to 80% in the first two months, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Meanwhile, reductions were still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum.

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