A grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force is helping Guildford Borough Council (GBC) to clean up chewing gum and reduce gum littering.

The Council 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.

The council is putting plans in place to remove discarded gum that blights local streets and to encourage people to put their gum in the bin when they’re finished with it.

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.

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first and second year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering of up to 80% was seen in the first two months – with reductions still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum.

The grant will allow the Council to fund targeted street cleansing programmes, tackling gum-littered hotspots in the centre of Guildford. In particular, it will focus on targeted cleaning of hot spot areas on North Street, by the bus station and rotunda at the bottom of town.

Lead Councillor for Environment and Recreation at Guildford Borough Council, Cllr Angela Goodwin, said:

“We’re delighted to have secured this funding from the Chewing Gum Taskforce. It will significantly enhance our efforts to tackle gum litter across Guildford.

“Chewing gum litter is not only unsightly but costly to remove, and this support helps us address the issue, and encourage more responsible behaviour.

“Cleaner streets make a huge difference to how people experience and take pride in their local environment. We’re proud to be part of this national movement that encourages all of us to look after our towns and keep them looking the best they can.”

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, said:

“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.”

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.

In its third year the Task Force awarded 54 councils grants worth a total of £1.585 million, helping clean an estimated 500,000m² of pavements.