City of Wolverhampton Council has begun blitzing the chewing gum that blights local streets with two new specialist removal machines.

Thanks to a £20,155 grant, the council’s street scene teams are currently out and about across the city to clean the sticky substance from pavements.

Work started in Lichfield Street, with other city centre locations of Westbury Street, Queen Street and Dudley Street to follow. Teams will then work their way to further chewing gum hot spots across Wolverhampton.

Signage is also appearing in local shops, supported by the city’s BID team, to encourage people to bin their gum responsibly.

The council was one of 52 across the country that successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force for the dedicated funds.

The Task Force, now in its fourth year, was established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.

The 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 to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.

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 – a not-for-profit social enterprise - 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 - with reductions still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum.

Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, cabinet member for resident services at City of Wolverhampton Council, said: “It’s fantastic to get out with the street scene team and see the huge difference that the chewing gum removal machines can make.

“Thoughtlessly discarded gum is unpleasant to see and very difficult to remove. But thanks to the funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force, we will be able to make a real difference to the city’s streets.

“I would make a real plea to anyone who enjoys chewing gum, to think before they discard it. Please find a bin or wrap it up and take it home. Make sure our city’s streets and spaces stay clean and welcoming for residents and visitors alike.”

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.

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.”