Latest news with #KeepBritainTidy
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Wyre Forest gets £27k to remove littered gum from streets
A district council has received £27,500 to remove chewing gum from its Forest District councillor Ben Brookes said the funding meant the council could "get to work cleaning up and, just as importantly, help remind people to bin their gum rather than drop it".Keep Britain Tidy said the cost of cleaning up chewing gum was estimated at £7m a project, named the Chewing Gum Task Force, has been funded by a £10m investment from gum manufacturers, spread over five years. It has awarded 54 councils grants totalling £1.585 million, which could help clean an estimated 500,000m2 of of Wolverhampton Council had been awarded a grant of £20, Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive, said: "Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces. "People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally - and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean it up."Brookes added that clearing up the gum would "make a big difference to how our district looks and feels". Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Heckmondwike and Marsden gum problem targeted by £26k grant
Efforts to tackle the problem of chewing gum stuck to pavements in two West Yorkshire towns have been boosted with the award of a £26,450 clean-up money from the Chewing Gum Task Force would be spent on a one-off deep clean in Heckmondwike and Marsden town centres, according to Kirklees task force was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and is run by the Keep Britain Tidy charity, but is funded by chewing gum manufacturers. Last year, a total of 16,503 pieces of gum litter were removed from streets in Huddersfield and Dewsbury following a £25,500 investment from the task force. Kirklees Council is one of 52 local authorities across the country which successfully applied for a grant this year to help efforts to clean chewing gum off pavements. 'Think twice' Councillor Tyler Hawkins, cabinet member for highways and waste, said: "We are delighted to have been awarded further funding to help us tackle the problem of gum litter across our towns and villages in Kirklees."Removing chewing gum litter will get these areas looking their best and complement our ongoing programme of regeneration work within our town centres. "With this clean-up and new signage, we hope it will make potential litterbugs think twice and help keep our home tidy."According to Keep Britain Tidy, about 77% of England's streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum, while estimates have suggested the annual cost to UK councils of cleaning up chewing gum litter is about £ Ogden-Newton, Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive, said: "People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally – and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean it up."Figures from Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – have shown that in areas which benefited from the first and second year of Chewing Gum Task Force funding, gum littering dropped by up to 80% in the first two months, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reductions were still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Heckmondwike deep cleanse to be funded by Chewing Gum Task Force
The Chewing Gum Task Force has given more than £20,000 of funding to Kirklees Council to help tackle gum litter. Last year, 16,503 pieces of gum litter were removed from streets in Huddersfield and Dewsbury, and this year the spotlight will be on Heckmondwike and Marsden, according to a spokesperson for the council. £26,450 has been received by the council to fund the efforts. A one-off, deep cleanse around Heckmondwike town centre is planned, to complement bus station development works. Funding will also be used to clear up gum litter in Marsden town centre and at the town's train station. Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, chair of Keep Britain Tidy, which runs the Chewing Gum Task Force, said: "People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally – and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean up." Kirklees is one of 52 councils to have successfully applied for funding this year from the Chewing Gum Task Force, which was established by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs and which is funded by such major gum manufacturers as Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Funds to remove 'thoughtless discarded' gum from Wolverhampton's streets
"Thoughtlessly discarded gum is unpleasant, unsightly and unacceptable. It has a negative effect on the local environment and is very difficult to remove."Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal's thoughts on gum came as it was announced Wolverhampton has been given more than £20,000 to remove chewing gum from its Britain Tidy said more than three quarters of UK streets are blighted by chewing gum, costing councils an estimated £7m to clean up each money could be used to purchase jet washer-style equipmment to remove gum from streets, as well as signage encouraging gum-chewers to bin it when finished. "Our Street Scene teams work tirelessly to make our streets welcoming to residents and visitors alike and this extra funding will boost their efforts in tackling the problem of thoughtlessly discarded gum," Gakhal, cabinet member for resident services, of Wolverhampton Council has been awarded a grant of £20,155 from the Chewing Gum Task Force (CGTF), run by Keep Britain Tidy and funded by major chewing gum is one of 52 authorities across the country to have successfully applied in the latest round of funding. Keep Britain Tidy said last year, an area the equivalent of 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools was rid of gum thanks to the funding, and littering was reduced by an estimated 68% two months after measures had been implemented."Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces," said the charity's chief executive, Alison Ogden-Newton OBE."People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally and ultimately costs the public purse to clean it up." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mirror
11-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
'My neighbours won't clear up dog poo so I came up with petty solution'
A fed up woman has slammed lazy dog walker to fail to pick up their pets' mess when taking them out for their daily exercise - and it has caused others to join in her 'protest' A woman has installed 'passive aggressive' signs on her street slamming lazy dog owners who fail to pick up their pets' mess. Fed up with dodging dog poo on her daily walk, she decided to take action and call out her pet-owning neighbours who have turned the streets into a minefield. And it seems her protest has encouraged others to take action against the problem. Sharing the signs on Reddit, the neighbour wrote: "Someone posted these passive aggressive 'pick up your dog poop' signs in my apartment complex and someone else got next level petty with them". The homemade signs read: "Pick up your dog's poop," "We ain't picking up a mfn [sic] thing", and "Pick up poop, blah, blah blah". Meanwhile, other signs show childlike drawings of sad-looking stick men thinking about dog poo being left on the streets. Commenting on the signs, one user said: "People who don't pick up after their dogs shouldn't be allowed to own dogs." Another user added: "I've gone and made 'signs' from sticky notes and little sticks to mark each pile of poop outside my apartment and left a note on the concrete saying, 'please pick up after your dogs'. "I just carried trash to the dumpster stepped in dog poo! As you can see, this volume of poop is insane! "Left it a few days, and then cleaned everything up. Gave them all a clean start again! A***holes continued to not pick it up. Finally, called management. Took monetary fines to make them pick up....." A third user said: "I'm having this issue right now. There's lots of dogs in my neighbourhood and I don't mind if they poop on my front lawn, but someone keeps f***ing leaving it! I always clean up after my dog. WARNING: Video contains explicit language. Viewer discretion is advised. "One of these days, I'm gonna spend a whole day/evening by the living room window to hopefully catch the asshole who is doing this." One more user added: "In my town there's a £1,000 fine for not picking up your dog poop - assuming you're caught." According to Keep Britain Tidy, anyone who fails to clear up after their dog can be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice of up to £100. If the case goes to court this could cost the owner or person in charge of the animal up to £1,000. A statement reads: "The law states that being unaware a dog has fouled or not having a suitable bag is not a reasonable excuse. "If someone does fail to clean up after their pet, it falls to the council to get rid of it. More than 90% of councils have dog wardens. "Keep Britain Tidy has campaigned very successfully on the issue of dog fouling. In 2010, our high-profile 'There's no such thing as the dog poo fairy' led to massive reductions in dog fouling in participating council areas. "Some communities saw a decrease of up to 90%, while on average a reduction of 43% was recorded across the 94 participating local authorities."
