A NEW campaign hopes to give litter-louts something to chew over.

People are being urged to bin their gum rather than spitting it onto the street and risking an £80 fine.

Bradford is taking part in a new national campaign, with posters being put up around the district and Council staff and private enforcement officers today handing out used gum wrapping kits to passers-by in the city centre.

The campaign is organised each year by the Chewing Gum Action Group and last year participating cities cut gum litter by a third.

And Bradford Council, which spent £10,000 over two years on hiring specialist gum removal contractors, has been keen to take part this year.

The Council has already brought in private firm 3GS to fine litterbugs, including those dropping gum.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, executive member for environment, sport and culture, joined Council workers and enforcement officers as they handed out gum wrapping kits in the city-centre street of Broadway this afternoon.

She pointed out the number of pieces of gum on the pavement.

She said: “It doesn’t degrade, you can see there’s a number of blobs round here, and where it sticks to it stays.

“This campaign is about behavioural change, because it’s the minority, not the majority who do this but it’s the majority that see it.

“If you spit it out, it’s gone, but it’s other people that actually see it and it’s the Council that comes to clear it up.

“We have either got to scrape it up or power-wash it off and like dropping litter, this isn’t acceptable behaviour.

“If you are caught littering, or spitting chewing gum out on the pavements, it is a littering offence and if you are caught doing it there is the chance of getting an £80 fine.

“It is difficult litter to remove because you have to scrub it off or scrape it off. You can’t just come along with a brush, because it sticks to anything.

“If it’s on the footpath, and you tread on it, it can be on the bottom of your shoe.

“We are always told as children not to swallow it, but I was always told to put it in a bit of tissue and put it in the nearest bin or take it home.”

The gum campaign is the latest move in Bradford Council’s efforts to clean up the district in the past 18 months.

It follows a crackdown on fly-tipping which has seen a number of people taken to court, as well as the decision to bring in private firm 3GS to patrol the city centre and fine litterbugs.

Cllr Ferriby said she believed this work was starting to make a difference.

She said: “I know from regularly walking round the city centre that there isn’t as much litter dropped as there has been previously.

“There is still some, but we are on that journey to change behaviour.”

The Chewing Gum Action Group is led by the Government, Keep Britain Tidy and gum manufacturers.

A spokesman for the Action Group said the bright, dance-theme posters it provided encouraged people “to dispose responsibly of gum litter in a fun and engaging way or face a fine of up to £80”.

They are put up on roadsides, bus stops, lamp-posts and telephone kiosks.