Council receives £25,000 grant to tackle chewing gum ‘blight’

MID Ulster Council have received a £25,000 grant to tackle the issue of chewing gum on local streets.

The money is coming from the Chewing Gum Task Force, which aims to clean up pavements and prevent them from being littered upon again, and are working with 56 councils across the country to tackle this sticky issue.

Mid Ulster Council chair, Cllr Dominic Molloy, said, “We spend in excess of £1.7m every year on cleaning, with the removal of unsightly chewing gum on our local footpaths and streets contributing to this figure.

“Therefore, I am delighted that the council was successful in its grant application to the task force.

“While I wish to remind residents that chewing gum should not be disposed of on the ground in the first place, this funding will help us clean up the areas in Mid Ulster that have fallen victim to this unpleasant and unnecessary blight.”

In its first year, the task force awarded 44 grants benefiting 53 councils who were able to clean an estimated area of pavement larger than 467 football pitches.

Now in its second year, it is funded by major gum manufacturers, including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle. Their investment will be spread over five years.

This year, the selected councils will receive funding totalling more than £1.2m.

Monitoring and evaluation has shown that, in areas that benefited last year, a reduced rate of gum littering is still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.