THE COUNCIL has secured tens of thousands of pounds in funds to clean chewing gum off streets.

Westmorland and Furness Council is one of 54 across the country that have successfully applied to the chewing gum task force, now in its third year, for funds to clean gum off pavements and to prevent them from being littered again.

The local authority has received £27,500 from the task force, which was established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and is ran by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, in a bid to tackle the issue.

According to the council, the first areas to be targeted will be The Glebe at Bowness and areas in Barrow, including Dalkeith Street and Cavendish Street, as well as outside the shops in Ormsgill and Lesh Lane.

The grant has funded a Maxvac MV7000 Gladiator gum remover and associated activity to clean up streets around Westmorland and Furness.

The chewing gum task force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, with an investment of up to £10 million, spread over five years.

Cabinet member for climate, biodiversity and environmental services, councillor Giles Archibald said: “This funding is very welcome and I look forward to seeing it used to make a visible difference in our communities.

“Our Street Scene teams work tirelessly to help make our towns and villages great places to be and this extra support to tackle the sticky problem will make a significant contribution to their efforts.”

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change, a not-for-profit social enterprise, has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering was still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.

Estimates suggest the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million and, according to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77 per cent of England’s streets and 99 per cent of retail sites are stained with gum.

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, said: “Chewing gum litter is highly visible on our high streets and is both difficult and expensive to clean up, so the support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force and the gum manufacturers is very welcome.

“However, once the gum has been cleaned up, it is vital to remind the public that when it comes to litter, whether it’s gum or anything else, there is only one place it should be – in the bin – and that is why the behaviour change element of the task force’s work is so important.”