Mid Ulster awarded additional funding to tackle the sticky issue of chewing gum
A fifth grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, will help Mid Ulster District Council continue to clean up gum and reduce gum littering.
Mid Ulster District Council is continuing to remove the chewing gum that blights local streets after receiving an additional £27,500 grant to tackle the issue.
This funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fifth year, will be used to clean gum off pavements and prevent them from being littered again. Mid Ulster District Council is one of 50 across the country that have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force and is one of only two local councils, in all of the UK, to successfully secure the funding for a fifth year. This year’s allocation brings the total funding secured under the scheme to £127,500.
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.
In the past four years, the Task Force has awarded grants worth a total of £6.46 million, funded the cleaning of over 4.15 million square metres of pavements.
Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – has shown that in areas that benefitted from funding, a reduced rate of gum littering of up to 86% was seen in the first two months.
Reductions were still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum.
Chair of the Council, Councillor Deirdre Varsani is delighted the Council was successful in securing the funding for a fifth year. She said:
We are pleased to have secured a fifth grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by Keep Britain Tidy, which will support our ongoing efforts to tackle chewing gum litter across Mid Ulster. The Council currently spends over £2.3 million every year on street cleaning services, including the removal of unsightly chewing gum from our local footpaths and streets. While people should never discard their chewing gum on the ground in the first place, this additional funding will help us maintain the cleanliness of our towns and public spaces that have been affected by this unsightly and entirely avoidable issue. This funding will not only support targeted cleaning activity but also help raise awareness of the importance of disposing of chewing gum responsibly, helping to create cleaner, more attractive places for everyone who lives, works and visits Mid Ulster.
According to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, said: “While chewing gum litter remains a stubborn eyesore in our public spaces, the good news is that this scheme is already driving major improvements.
“As an environmental charity, we know that every piece of gum dropped irresponsibly damages the environment, taking years to break down naturally, while also leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for costly clean-up operations.
“Everyone in Mid Ulster can play a part in creating cleaner, greener streets for all by binning their gum properly.”