A FINAL warning went out today to the hundreds of gum chewers in Huddersfield.
Council officials are promising to hand out £75 fines to people seen spitting gum on the streets.
And the message is: Change you behaviour or be fined.
A four-week campaign to encourage responsible litter disposal across Kirklees has already seen the warning phase, when publicity about the correct way of disposing of chewing gum have been put out.
Now Kirklees Council’s Environmental Enforcement team will be focusing efforts on targeting people who drop gum in the main town centres despite there being more than 550 litter bins and 40 GumTargets in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
Just under half of Kirklees residents chew gum and this figure is expected to increase with the smoking ban.
Gum is a major problem, particularly on pavements outside bars, food establishments and shop entrances. It looks unsightly and specialist cleaning equipment is required to remove it at the cost of around 30p for one piece of gum.
The stain left following removal can often looks as bad as the gum litter itself.
Clr Martyn Bolt, Cabinet member for the Environment, said: “In Honley the council is already testing a chemical application which prevents gum from sticking. However, prevention is always better than cure and we want to encourage gum chewers to stop throwing gum on the pavements in the first place.
“We hope the campaign will help raise awareness of the gum problem and the challenges it poses in cleaning up discarded gum.
“We would like to see people using the bins or GumTargets provided, but we won’t hesitate to fine those caught doing otherwise as we did in the case of the offender issued with a fixed penalty notice for spitting gum on Trinity Street in Huddersfield last year.
“We will be extra vigilant during the campaign period!”
