Building on the success of last year, 16 local authorities including Blackpool as the North West participant took part in this year's round of campaigns that aimed to educate people about the responsible disposal of chewing gum and the financial penalties that offenders face. This year's average reduction is an improvement on the 37 per cent achieved in the last round of campaigns, with authorities in Blackpool and Oxford reporting as much as 85 and 86 per cent less chewing gum litter.
The public awareness campaign adverts were designed, co-ordinated and supported by paid-for advertising provided by the Chewing Gum Action Group, which is chaired by Defra and made up of industry representatives.
Minister for Local Environment Quality, Jonathan Shaw, said:
"An average reduction of almost 60 per cent less gum litter is excellent progress by local authorities and shows that making people aware of the consequences of their behaviour really works.
"Cleaning up all forms of litter costs councils more than half a billion pounds a year. Chewing gum is not only expensive to deal with it is often impossible to remove. Encouraging people to change their careless behaviour so that they don't drop this litter in the first place is the only permanent way of reducing it - before it becomes a costly problem. The campaigns also remind people that dropping any form of litter is an offence that carries a maximum £80 fine.
"I congratulate these local authorities for the success they've achieved. Raising awareness on this issue is a way of ensuring a cleaner and more pleasant local environment that we can all enjoy."
Local authorities supported the campaigns by running their own initiatives, to inspire positive behaviour change from gum droppers. Initiatives included a diverse range of activities: local launches, "grime scene investigations", street theatre, stalls and pledges, that were supported by local business as well as community and youth groups. An important element of the campaigns was an increase in the visibility of enforcement and fines for gum litter.
Each local authority campaign ran for a four week period between August and September this year. Streets were cleansed of chewing gum litter before the campaigns were launched and after they had finished, so that accurate counts of chewing gum litter could be taken to provide this year's results.
This year's participants, and the reduction in gum litter as a result of the campaigns are listed below:
Local Authority Reduction in Gum Accumulated (%)
Bedford 16
Blackpool 85
Braintree 49
Brighton & Hove 32
Bristol 59
Canterbury 47
Colchester 60
Enfield 39
Gosport 4
Kirklees 35
Leeds 37
Mansfield 14
Middlesbrough 34
Oxford 86
Test Valley 57
Wolverhampton 57
The Chewing Gum Action Group is making plans for further campaigns in 2008. More information about this will be available in the New Year. More information on the group, past campaigns and research can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/litter/gum/
