Leeds City Council have been given £24,994.50, from the Chewing Task Force to try and tackle the chewing gum problem in Leeds.
The funding will be used to deep clean areas of the city and apply pavement protector which makes it easier for the chewing gum to be removed in the future.
The areas targeted, are Boar Lane, Briggate Crossroads and the lower part of Lands Lane.
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.”
The clean up will be supported by a specific campaign which aims to influence people to think twice about dropping their chewing gum in the city centre and to discard of it properly.
Councillor Barry Anderson said, “You will always have the ‘hard nuts’ that will not change their behaviour whatsoever, because they’ve not been brough up correctly, not been brought up to respect law and order and don’t really care about the environment.”
When talking about the council implementing fines, he added, “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.”
An evaluation carried out by the Chewing Gum Task Force showed that areas have benefited from last years funding and have seen reductions of up to 80% of chewing gum littering in the first two months.
