Litter louts who drop their chewing gum on the streets of Liverpool could be fined up to £80 as part of a new campaign.
The ‘Bin it Your Way’ campaign was launched by Liverpool City Council in a bid to create a cleaner, gum-free environment for the community.
The campaign is one of several ways the council has tried to reduce the problem of gum on the street. In 2005 they called for a ‘chewing gum tax’ to contribute to the £355,000 a year clean-up bill. In 2008 the city spent millions on re-laying areas of the city which were worst affected by gum littering and they introduced proposals for a spray to be applied to them which would make lifting gum off the pavement easier.
The Chewing Gum Action Group (CGAG) has worked in partnership with the council to develop the campaign to try to make a successful attempt at improving the streets of Liverpool.
Posters and billboards covered in the bright advertisements warning members of the public to ‘bin it’ and step away from fines of up to £80. The group is chaired by The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, which allows Local Environment Quality officers to issue fixed penalty notices to anyone deemed to be littering or dropping chewing gum in an ongoing fight for cleaner streets.
Kristian Bentham, CGAG campaign co-ordinator said: “Over the past eight years we have been extremely encouraged by the results of the CGAG campaign and we are looking forward to working with this year’s participating authorities to help create cleaner, more attractive places to live and work.”
Liverpool is one of the 16 cities in the UK working with CGAG to crack down on the problem of gum-stained streets, which affects 95% of primary retail and commercial sites in the UK, according to the action group.