Harrogate Borough Council

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Harrogate Council's street cleansing team is out cleaning our streets even earlier and later than normal.  In a planned programme to rid our streets of spat out chewed chewing gum, the team is using a high-powered gum buster in Ripon and Harrogate town centre from 4.00 am to 12 midnight. 

 

The council apologises for any disturbance this may cause but this early start and late finish makes sure they are out when the streets are at their quietest and minimises conflict with businesses opening for the day.

 

Kirkgate in Ripon, repaved at many thousands of pounds and in keeping with this historic city, has once again been daubed with chewed gum, and the town centre of Harrogate is just as bad. 

 

Council Leader, Councillor Mike Gardner who is also chair of the Harrogate District Safer Communities Partnership said:  "This nasty habit was deemed a blight of the 20^th century and it continues into the 21^st.  In our recent Crime and Disorder audit, local people are telling us that they deem littering to be high on their anti-social behaviour list.

 

"Repeated lobbying by professional organisations to bring pressure to bear on the producers of gum, by insisting that they contribute towards the cost of clearance, failed but at least the Government has moved a step closer to enforcement by designating gum as litter in the new Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act 2005."

 

Welcoming the new legislation, Councillor Gardner added:  "People using our streets are going to have to learn that we won't tolerate litter and that now includes gum.  I would urge those who have been chewing gum, to find a bit of paper either a tissue or even a bus ticket and discard their gum into a litterbin."   ENDS