Ben Everitt, the MP for Milton Keynes North, has welcomed the news the Conservative Government has provided new funding for Milton Keynes City Council to clean up chewing gum from our streets and prevent it from being littered again.
Launched in 2021, the Task Force was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and is administered by charity Keep Britain Tidy, with funding provided by gum producers. It aims to clean gum off pavements and put in measures to stop it being dropped in the first place, helping clamp down on anti-social littering.
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.
The Chewing Gum Task Force brings together some of the country’s major chewing gum producers, including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle. Together, the producers have pledged up to £10 million over five years via the scheme to tackle gum littering.
Ben Everitt MP said: "The Conservative Government has invested millions of pounds worth of funding into Milton Keynes City Council over recent years, whether that's been to support businesses or support people through the Cost Of Living, and I'm pleased we have secured yet more funding - this time to clean up chewing gum.
"Chewing gum all over our streets can have a detrimental affect on our communities, not only because it looks terrible, but because of the damage it can do to our wildlife and the use of public money to clean it so I want to urge everybody to be responsible and dispose of your chewing gum properly."
Rebecca Pow, Environment Minister, commented: "Littering blights our communities, spoils our countryside, harms our wildlife and wastes taxpayers’ money when cleaning it up. That’s why we’re working with gum producers to tackle chewing gum stains.
"After the success of the first round of funding, this next slice will give councils further support to clean up our towns and cities."