Council gets £25,000 to help deal with sticky problem

THE sticky streets of Dromore and Drumquin are next on the council’s to-do list, as their staff take to towns and villages across the district to tackle the blight of littered chewing gum.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council was recently successful in receiving a grant of £25,000 from the Chewing Gum Task Force – an initiative administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, which aims to remove chewing gum from our roads and paths, and discourage people in the future from spitting their gum out onto the street.

Until now, it has been localities across Fermanagh that have benefitted from the funding, with the streets of Ballinamallard, Ederney and Kesh all having profited from the initiative.

However, soon it will be Tyrone’s turn, with further works scheduled to be undertaken in Dromore and Drumquin.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is one of 56 municipal governments across the UK to have had a successful application with the scheme.

Using a two pronged approach, the scheme, which is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, aims to both tackle and prevent chewing gum littering, by helping fund street cleaning and the erection of warning signs.

This year the selected councils received a cumulative total of more than £1.2 million.

According to those funding and administering the scheme, monitoring and evaluation of its impact shows that it usually takes about six months from the clean-up and installation of preventative measures before a reduction in gum litter can be observed.

Speaking about the initiative, the new chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Cllr Thomas O’Reilly, said, “Chewing gum is a nuisance on our streets, it is unsightly and it is also harmful to the environment and wildlife.

“The council spends a considerable amount on street cleansing, therefore, this funding is a welcome boost to help the us tackle the issue and try to encourage behaviour change to reduce the amount of litter, including chewing gum, being dropped on our streets.”