Council Warn Of Chewing Gum Fines

---

Follow the example of our Wombles

Merton has launched a campaign to tackle chewing gum litter on its streets and pavements.

The council are hitting the streets with a series of road shows across the borough during March, to encourage residents and visitors to Merton to take responsibility of their litter and put used gum in a bin.

In Wimbledon, who better than to launch the campaign than the AFC Wimbledon's litter-busting mascot, Haydon the womble? He is pictured (right) in The Piazza.

The road shows are part of a national campaign funded by the Chewing Gum Action Group (CGAG), a joint initiative between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the chewing gum industry and Chartered Institution of Waste Management.

Through meeting the public face-to-face, the council hopes to convince people to bin their gum and other litter and not sling it.

Councillor Andew Judge, Cabinet member for environmental sustainability and regeneration, said: "When chewing gum is carelessly thrown away it gets trodden into the pavements and makes the area look grimy and dirty.

"We spend over £3million each year keeping the streets clean in Merton, money we would prefer to spend on other services. We will not tolerate people dropping litter of any form and anyone spotted committing this environmental crime faces a £75 fine. Let’s keep Merton clean by binning our gum and other litter.”

Vice-Chair of London Councils Transport and Environment Committee Councillor Nilgun Canver, said: "Dropping chewing gum on the ground is anti-social. Litter is a blight on our local environment. We all need to do our bit to keep London’s streets clean, bin your gum."

March 12, 2012