A CAMPAIGN to remove chewing gum off Redcar’s streets – and keep it off for good - has been launched.
The Council is putting plans in place to remove the chewing gum that blights local streets after receiving a £23,744 grant to tackle the issue.
The 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 prevent it from being littered again.
Redcar has been chosen initially as it is the borough’s biggest town centre, and it complements the Regeneration improvements. However, it is hoped that the combined cleaning and signage programme will prove successful at preventing gum litter and can be rolled out across other hotspot areas in the borough.
Established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the Chewing Gum Task Force Grant Scheme is open to councils across the UK who wish to clean up gum in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.
The 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.
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.
Cllr Adam Brook, Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “Discarded gum looks unsightly, all our residents and our visitors deserve to have clean streets. We not only want to remove this gum but we want to encourage people not to drop it on the street in the first place. We have a beautiful borough that’s there for everyone to enjoy and there’s no place for any kind of littering.”
Cllr Carl Quartermain, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, added: “This is fabulous news. Chewing gum spots on the pavement look awful. In Redcar they are particularly prevalent on Queen St approaching the town clock, Coatham Road, West terrace, the Esplanade and along the unpedestrianised East end paving areas of the High Street. Along with other improvements to street furniture, signage, drainage, and greening, myself and my fellow ward councillor, Cllr Lynne Rynn, have also requested pressure washing the High Street paved areas that are outside of the footprint of the government’s Town Deal project and therefore will not be renovated.
"It is important to us that when our town sees the infrastructure project come to fruition, these other areas outside the Town Deal project, are not neglected or else they will stick out like a sore thumb.
"We very much look forward to when this clean-up will take place and look forward supporting the work in any way we can."
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% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.
In its second year the task force awarded 55 councils a total of £1.56 million, helping clean an estimated 440,000 m2 of pavement - an area equivalent to the Vatican City.
By combining targeted street cleaning with specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum, participating councils achieved reductions in gum littering of up to 60% in the first two months.
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.”