Fermanagh and Omagh District Council awarded funding to tackle the sticky issue of chewing gum on our streets

A grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, will help Fermanagh and Omagh District Council clean up gum and reduce gum littering.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is putting plans in place to remove the chewing gum that blights local streets after receiving a £27,500 grant to tackle the issue.

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. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is one of only three local councils to successfully secure the funding for a fourth year.

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.

Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Cllr Barry McElduff commented “Chewing gum litter is an ongoing challenge that not only damages the appearance of our town centres and public spaces but also comes at a significant cost to clean up. This funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force will help us take meaningful action — removing existing gum stains and encouraging people to bin their gum responsibly. We’re committed to creating cleaner, more welcoming streets for everyone who lives, works, and visits our area.”

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.

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.”