Keeping chewing gum off our streets

A before and after of the streets of Cheltenham's promenade being cleaned of chewing gum stains.

We want to encourage everyone to play their part and keep our town clean and tidy, as well as keep litter out of street drains which flow into the rivers and the sea. To do this, we have relaunched the #BinYourGum campaign in August 2024 funded by a £26,500 grant from the Keep Britian Tidy Chewing Gum Taskforce which will be supported by a behaviour change campaign.

Improvements in the town centre - 2024

The clean up started on Monday 29 July 2024 clearing chewing gum and deep cleaning the pavements in the Promenade up to Neptune's Fountain and then moved up the Promenade outside Imperial Gardens on both sides of the road. 'Bin Your Gum' has been written on the pavements where chewing gum has been cleared up using a stencil and line marking paint (just like we use to mark up football pitches) which will eventually wear off or can be jet washed off easily when appropriate. 

Signage provided by Keep Britain Tidy's Chewing Gum Task Force will be put up on lamposts in the areas that we have cleaned as we move around the town centre. The signage is part of a five-year innovation programme and collaboration by Behaviour Change with chewing gum manufacturer Mars Wrigley, who have created and tested a range of ways to encourage responsible behaviour, which resulted in local reductions of gum littering by up to 64%. These interventions have now been made available for deployment by councils such as Cheltenham Borough Council as part of the Chewing Gum Task Force grant scheme.

Outlying shopping areas such as Windyridge, Lynworth Exchange, Whaddon Road shops, Priors Road shops, Rowanfield and Churchpiece have already had chewing gum removed and and a deep clean as part of a separate clean up this summer.

We will be removing chewing gum and delivering a deep clean in all of the following areas from now until October.

  • Section 1: Prom (Crescent Terrace – Neptunes Fountain) - deep clean completed week commencing 29 July 2024
  • Section 2: Prom (The Quadrangle – Queens Hotel) - deep clean in progress week commencing 5 August 2024
  • Section 3: Royal Well Road (St Georges Road – Crescent Terrace Inc. Royal Well Place and Bus Station)
  • Section 4: Clarence Parade (Inc. Crescent Terrace and Clarence Street)
  • Section 5: Lower High Street (Clarence Street – Ambrose Street Inc. Bennington Street 25m)
  • Section 6: High Street (Boots Corner – Winchcombe Street inc. Pittville Street and Winchcombe Street to junction)
  • Section 7: High Street (Winchcombe Street – Bath Road inc. Rodney Road 25m and Cambray Place to roundabout)
  • Section 8: Regent Street (Inc. County Court Road and Ormond Place)  
  • Section 9: Bath Road (Strand – Oriel Road including Bath Street)
  • Section 10: Lower High Street (Ambrose Street – Poole Way) – narrow pavements
  • Section 11: Imperial Gardens to Montpellier Roundabout including Rotunda
  • Section 12: Prom (Imperial Circus – Crescent Terrace)

#BinYourGum

The £26,500 funding is being used to carry out a deep clean of many of the Cheltenham town centre streets, starting in the Promenade, which are hotspots for gum littering. This is being supported by specially designed signage and pavement stencils, aimed at changing behaviours by encouraging the public to dispose of their chewing gum responsibly in the litter bins provided, keeping the town cleaner, safer and more accessible for all.

Cheltenham Borough Council is one of 54 across the country that have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, receiving its funding for the first year, to clean gum off pavements and prevent it from being littered again.

Established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the Chewing Gum Task Force grant scheme is open to councils across the UK who wish to clean up gum in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.

The task force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, with an investment of up to £10 million spread over five years.

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise - has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering was still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, said: “Chewing gum litter is highly visible on our high streets and is both difficult and expensive to clean up, so the support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force and the gum manufacturers is very welcome.

“However, once the gum has been cleaned up, it is vital to remind the public that when it comes to litter, whether it’s gum or anything else, there is only one place it should be – in the bin – and that is why the behaviour change element of the task force’s work is so important.”

Updated August 2024