Nottingham City Council is launching a new chewing gum litter awareness drive as part of a national campaign to tackle the increasing problem.

DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and The Chewing Gum Action Group is running awareness campaigns from Monday September 22 until Friday October 17 on chewing gum litter to increase awareness of inappropriate behaviour and to promote a responsible attitude amongst gum droppers.

Nottingham City Council is taking part in this year’s campaign to encourage positive behaviour change and reduce the amount of used chewing gum that is dropped as litter.

People dropping chewing gum is a significant issue for the Council it is costly to remove, looks a mess and upsets local residents.

Awareness of the problem will be highlighted in an advertising campaign across the city encouraging people to bin their gum to avoid a fine of up to £80 and the City Council will be working with schools and colleges to encourage children and young people to dispose of their gum responsibly.

As part of the campaign six new chewing gum bins will be piloted in Clifton and Bilborough and businesses in the areas will be encouraged to display posters on their premises to encourage people to use the bin.

Campaign posters and bin stickers will also be sent for display in schools, libraries, community centres and student unions across the city to spread the enforcement message as widely as possible to change the behaviour of gum droppers.

Ten chewing gum hotspots have been identified covering the City Centre, Bilborough and Clifton and these will be monitored during the campaign, and Community Protection Officer’s will be increasing patrols in these areas throughout the period of the campaign.

Cllr Katrina Bull, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Climate Change at Nottingham City Council, said: “Residents across Nottingham highlighted the problem of chewing gum during the Big Spring Clean campaign so we have acted on this and joined up with the national campaign to tackle the problem. Chewing gum on our streets is recognised by the public as one of the most visible signs of low environmental quality. It can be time consuming and expensive to clean up, and often requires specialist equipment.”