The Council is putting plans in place to remove the chewing gum that blights select number of streets in the city centre after receiving a £27,500 grant to tackle the issue.
Sheffield is one of 52 across the country that have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fourth year, for funds to clean gum off pavements and prevent it from being littered again.
Sheffield’s vibrant night-time economy is a vital element of our city centre, however, a minority of users of Carver Street are involved in the anti-social behaviour of gum-spitting. Carver Street has asphalt surfacing on the pavement in parts and it is difficult to remove chewing gum-staining from asphalt surfaces.
The project will focus primarily on Carver Street -one of the focal points of Sheffield’s city centre. Located close to the £470million ‘Heart Of The City’ scheme, the Council is hoping to clean up the pavements at the popular night-time destination which have been tarnished by gum and make the street more in keeping with the developing city centre, above the work Amey already carry out across the city centre.
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.
“This project is important in keeping the streets clean and we welcome this funding.
“We look forward to being able to clean up pavements heavily stained with gum-litter, upgrading and aligning these areas with the major redevelopments in the city centre.
“We will also be encouraging businesses premises who generate a lot of chewing gum litter – such as those in the nighttime economy – to step up and help us tackle this issue as well as deploying specific campaigns around these businesses.
“We would encourage locals to help us with this project by following the guidance we set out and so more people bin their gum.”
Councillor Joe Otten, Chair of Environmental Services and Regulation Policy Committee
“Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces – though thankfully the scheme is leading to significant reductions.
“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.”
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive
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.