A grant has been awarded to Cheshire West and Chester Council to tackle chewing gum litter in Chester city centre.

Administered by environmental charity, 'Keep Britain Tidy', the £25,747 grant will go towards cleaning and reducing gum litter on Chester's streets.

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.

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.

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' 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.

Cllr Stuart Bingham said: "We will be able to use the services of specialist contractors to remove chewing gum in hot spot areas in Chester's city centre.

"To truly make a lasting impact, we know it's important to combine street cleaning with positive messaging that encourages everyone to dispose of their gum properly.

"Achieving behaviour change will be an important part of this campaign.

"Everyone can play their part, by disposing of their chewing gum responsibly, rather than dropping on the ground. 

"Chewing gum is incredibly difficult and expensive to clean up, it's unsightly, stains our streets and pavements and gets stuck to people's shoes. It is really unpleasant stuff."

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."