Waging war on sticky issue

From the Wiltshire Times, first published Friday 27th Jan 2006.

THE sticky problem that has plagued Chippenham's streets for years has been targeted in a massive blitz.

Chewing gum stuck to the town centre's stone paving slabs has given councillors a headache for years.

A new machine was brought in by North Wiltshire District Council to tackle the problem of gum littering the town, but it suffered a catalogue of problems.

It was stuck in a council depot for a 18 months because there was not enough money to run it and in August the £12,000 machine broke down after less than a month's use.

But after the slow start, over the past three weeks there has been a blitz on gum all over Chippenham town centre.

Cllr Ross Henning said: "A lot of the areas in the town have been cleaned but there is still a little bit left to do.

"If we take care of our town centre then people will have more of a sense of pride themselves.

"Also it is a habit, if you look down the road and there is loads of gum everywhere then people will be more inclined to spit it out themselves.

"It is something a lot of people have been campaigning for over quite a long time."

Cllr Henning also talked about tackling the problem of the culprits.

"Some councils have undercover people on the street who give out on-the-spot fines if anyone is caught dropping litter," he said.

"That might be a bit extreme but it would make people sit up and take notice.

"My personal view is we should put up some temporary A-boards saying we have cleaned the High Street, please don't drop your chewing gum'.

"It is great that we have got to a stage where the streets of Chippenham have been cleaned of chewing gum, now we have to try and keep it that way."

Cllr Henning said the district council will pay for the first blitz and the town council will fund any further clean-up operations.

Archive Home