Leeds City Council has received funding from The Chewing Task Force to clean the city.
The £25,000 is planned to be spent on a deep clean of the city and an application of pavement protector that will ease future chewing gum removal from the floor as well as reducing staining.
Leeds Council worker, David Rowson, said “For the clean up we will have a special team in town and they will have a special machine which is like a jet wash, and that will blast the chewing gum up and that will make it easier to get the chewing gum off the paths.”
Councillor Barry Anderson has concerns that this issue could happen again. Councillor Anderson said: “There are always, what I call ‘hardnuts’, which will just not change their behaviour whatsoever because they have not been brought up correctly and they have not been brought up to respect law and order, and they don’t really care about the environment.”
Councillor Anderson thinks a fine should be put in place to chewing gum litterers but when asked if this would come into place he said “This Council is more likely than not to try the ‘carrot’ first of all and then bring the ‘stick’ in if people don’t change their habits voluntarily.”
Some members of the public have said that the money could be spent on better things such as helping homes, in particular helping with the rising electricity bills.
This project is supported by specially designed signage which aims at changing behaviours, it will urge people to think twice about dropping chewing gum whilst in the city centre. planned to target areas such as around the Boar Lane, Briggate crossroads and the lower part of Lands Lane.
