Further Task Force funding for Ipswich street cleaning

Ipswich Borough Council has secured further funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force this year to help keep our streets clean and prevent gum littering the town.

A grant of £21,214 from environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, will fund new specialist equipment – a Maxwind Sweeper – to deep clean shopping areas using an environmentally friendly electric vehicle.

The funding will also support dedicated prevention measures, encourage the use of bins to dispose of gum responsibly, enable events with DiGBY at local schools and other public events in the town, and offer gum pouches to encourage responsible disposal.

Ipswich Borough Council is one of 56 areas across the country to have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its second year, to fund measures that remove gum from streets.

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change has shown that in areas that benefitted last year, a reduced rate of gum littering is still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.

Councillor Phil Smart, Ipswich Borough Council Portfolio Holder for the Environment, says:

 “On average, we spend around £70,000 every year keeping the pavements around our town clean, so it’s great that we can bid for funding like this to enhance our street cleansing activities.

“We are delighted to have received further funding from The Chewing Gum task force to continue to tackle the ongoing problem of chewing gum staining in public spaces, using a new specialist electric sweeper to deep clean our streets. Disposing of litter responsibly really does help to keep Ipswich tidy, so please bin your gum.”

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, adds: “Chewing gum litter is highly visible on our high streets and is both difficult and expensive to clean up, so the support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force and gum manufacturers is very welcome.”

Littering is a criminal offence, carrying an on-the-spot penalty with fines up to £2,500. Officers routinely patrol Ipswich town centre and can issue an £80 Fixed Penalty Notice to offenders if they catch someone dropping litter.

Street cleansing issues in Ipswich can be reported online at: Report a street cleaning problem | Ipswich Borough Council

The Chewing Gum Task Force, established by Defra (the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs), is run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy. It brings together some of the UK’s major chewing gum producers (Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle) to provide funding to local authorities to help remove gum litter from UK high streets and prevent future littering.

Find out more at: www.tacklegumlittering.co.uk, www.behaviourchange.org.uk or www.keepbritaintidy.org

Image credit – Ipswich Borough Council