Deep cleaning of stained streets gets underway in East Ham and Stratford
Cllr James Asser, Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainable Transport took part in the removal work in Stratford.
Newham is one of the first councils to be awarded funding from The Chewing Gum Task Force – a brand new fund to help clean chewing gum from the UK’s towns and cities.
The council has used the funding to buy equipment to carry out deep cleaning to remove chewing gum stains from Newham’s streets, and install new signage to encourage people to bin their gum in future.
Our street cleaning team started the deep cleaning in East Ham and Stratford over the last few weeks. The cleaning will roll out to other areas of Newham soon.
Councillor James Asser, Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainable Transport said:
“We’re delighted to have received this funding from The Chewing Gum Task Force, which will help us tackle the ongoing problem of chewing gum staining in our high streets and public spaces.
“Residents have made it clear to us that what they want to see is a cleaner, smarter borough.
“We are already undertaking a lot of action to tackle fly tipping, including our enhanced enforcement team who are tackling day-to-day litter which includes dropping chewing gum. We are issuing fixed penalty notices of £150 to anyone who drops gum on our streets as it costs money to clean it up which could be spent on other services for residents.
“This grant is allowing us to clean the streets, discourage people from dropping gum with the new signage placed in high streets, and if they continue to drop gum on the streets they will be fined.”
The Chewing Gum Task Force was established by Defra and is run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy. The funding recently announced is the first tranche of a package worth up to £10 million from major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle to tackle chewing gum stains – the investment will be spread over five years.
Previous pilots run by Mars Wrigley and not-for-profit Behaviour Change using this signage have reduced gum littering by up to 64%.
Around 87% of England’s streets are stained with gum, according to Keep Britain Tidy, and the estimated costs to councils is around £7million each year. The Chewing Gum Task Force grant fund represents a commitment from the Government and major gum manufacturers to work together to find long-term solutions to this issue.
The grant of £70,000 was jointly awarded to Newham and Redbridge Councils.
Newham Council has committed to spend £40 million over the next 4 years to keep streets and neighbourhoods clean and cut reported fly-tipping by 50 percent.
