Of all the small annoyances that a town centre can suffer, there aren’t many that are as stubborn as a pavement stained with old chewing gum. It is the sort of everyday grime that becomes invisible until you notice just how much of it there is, at which point you’ll notice it every time you look down. Guildford Borough Council has now secured fresh funding to do something about it in the town, becoming one of 50 councils nationally to win a grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force for a second year running.
Getting Rid of the Gum
The Task Force, now in its fifth year, was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and is run by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, offering grants to councils that are willing to clean gum off their pavements and invest in longer-term efforts to stop it from being dropped in the first place. It is funded not by taxpayers, but by the gum industry itself, with manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle putting up as much as £10 million over five years.
In the four years since it launched, the scheme has awarded £6.46 million in total and funded the cleaning of more than 4.15 million square metres of pavement across the country. Councillor Angela Goodwin, who is the Lead Councillor for Environment and Sustainability at Guildford Borough Council, welcomed the news. She said,
We’re delighted to have secured funding for a second year in a row from the Chewing Gum Task Force, enabling us to continue tackling gum litter across Guildford and helping to keep our streets clean and welcoming.
Early Results Are Encouraging
The early signs from other funded areas are encouraging. Monitoring by the not-for-profit Behaviour Change found that targeted cleaning combined with new signage can cut gum littering by as much as 86% within the first two months, with the improvement continuing to hold up six months later. Nationally, Keep Britain Tidy estimates that around 77% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites carry some kind of gum staining, which is a statistic that puts Guildford’s own pavements in the majority rather than the minority.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, the Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, struck an optimistic chord when it comes to the scheme’s impact so far. “While chewing gum litter remains a stubborn eyesore in our public spaces, the good news is that this scheme is already driving major improvements,” she said. Councillor Goodwin, for her part, framed it as part of a broader ambition for the town centre, saying, “Clean, well-maintained streets help create places that residents, businesses and visitors can be proud of.” Getting funding for a second year is a step in the right direction.