'Bin your gum' signage addresses sticky issue

Brightly-coloured signs have been put up across a city centre urging people chewing gum to dispose of it responsibly.

Exeter City Council has positioned the pink 'Bin your Gum' signage on bins and posts to discourage people from throwing it on pavements or roads.

In July, the authority received a £30,657 grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force - a national unit established by the government - to help clean up gum and reduce gum littering.

Cllr Ruth Williams said she hoped the signage would be "a talking point" and would "encourage people to change their behaviour and bin their gum moving forward".

Exeter City Council said the funding would be spent on a chewing gum removal team and a liveried gum-removal cart, with an initial focus on Sidwell Street, before moving on to other parts of the city centre.

Williams said it was "great to be awarded the money for us to tackle the sticky issue of gum on our streets and I'm really pleased with the new signage, which is striking and hard not to see".

The task force was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, which estimated about 77% of England's streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.

It has been funded by gum manufacturers such as Plymouth-based Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle.

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, the charity's chief executive, said chewing gum litter was a "stubborn eyesore" but the scheme was "driving major improvements".

"We know that every piece of gum dropped irresponsibly damages the environment, taking years to break down naturally.

"Everyone in Exeter can play a part in creating cleaner, greener streets for all by binning their gum properly."

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.