Skipton could be set to benefit from cleaner streets after a grant has been secured to tackle chewing gum.
North Yorkshire Council has received £27,500 from the Government’s national Chewing Gum Task Force to clean gum off pavements and prevent it from being littered in the first place.
The funding will be used to tackle hotspot areas in Northallerton, Scarborough and Selby in a bid to help support our aim of providing a clean, environmentally sustainable, and attractive place to live, work and visit.
Last year, the Council successfully bid for an initial £27,500, which is the maximum that can be awarded. It has been used to target areas of Malton and Scarborough.
A further bid will be made next year with the aim of cleaning up hotspot areas in Harrogate and Skipton.
Executive member for managing our environment, Cllr Richard Foster, said:
“It will always be better if people put their gum in a bin, but unfortunately it is a persistent and unsightly problem that affects the look and feel of our communities.
"This funding allows us to take targeted action in more places and, thanks to the funding, we have acquired specialist equipment to remove gum from our streets.
“We’re committed to creating cleaner, more welcoming town centres for residents and visitors alike, and this initiative is a great step forward.”
The Chewing Gum Task Force grant scheme was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and is run by environmental charity, Keep Britain Tidy.
It is open to councils across the UK which aim to clean up gum in their area and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.
North Yorkshire are one of 52 local authorities across the country to have successfully applied for the funding.
Estimates suggest that the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million and, according to Keep Britain Tidy, about 77 per cent of England’s streets and 99 per cent of retail sites are stained with gum.
During the past three years, the Chewing Gum Task Force has awarded more than £4.88 million in grants, cleaned over 3.4 million square meters of pavements, and reduced gum littering by up to 80 per cent.
The chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, 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.”
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