If you’ve noticed a hardworking crew in Ruddington village centre, wearing fluorescent orange suits and intriguing backpacks which wouldn’t have looked out of place in a blockbusting 1980s supernatural comedy film, you may have wondered what on earth’s going on?!
Well, as Ruddington’s (Ray?) ‘Nosey’ Parker of News, we can reveal the trio are from Rushcliffe Borough Council’s ‘Streetwise’ team! They’re here at the moment to continue a Rushcliffe-wide initiative tackling chewing gum ‘hot spots’ – blitzing our own village centre pavements last Saturday and again this weekend to finish the job.
It’s after the Authority received £25,000 from the ‘Chewing Gum Task Force’, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, allowing its Streetwise team to extend their work to prevent the sticky issue of chewing gum litter. The funding has enabled the purchase of three electric ‘eco-friendly’ gum removal machines that are safely removing chewing gum whilst reportedly being kinder to the environment. Above and below you can see Gary Johnson, Armando Teixeira and Bill Illingworth on Ruddington High Street, putting them through their paces.
“The machines seem to be working alright and getting it up” reveals gum-buster Gary, who was born and bred in Ruddington. He explains: “They’re battery-operated with a special liquid in them. This gets heated up to a certain temperature so it can get the chewing gum off. Recent gum only takes a few seconds – but older gum can take a couple of minutes to get up.”
Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Environment and Safety Cllr Rob Inglis says: “We welcome this new £25,000 funding that has enabled us to put plans in place to further clean our streets and encourage behaviour change to prevent gum litter. Our three new eco-friendly gum removal machines are a fantastic asset for our cleansing team. The machines are fully electric which aligns with our Carbon Clever priorities to further protect the environment.”
Cllr Inglis continues: “We can all agree chewing gum creates an eyesore and it can stick to footwear and clothing, and we want to encourage people to bin their gum, there are no excuses. We are also implementing specially designed signage in hot spots across the Borough to encourage people to bin their gum. Littering of any sort is not acceptable and we want to see a change to keep our streets clean and even tidier.”
An example of the new signage which will be put up in Ruddington Village centre soon can be seen below.
Ironically this Chewing Gum Task Force Grant Scheme is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle – with their investment spread over five years and, nationwide, worth more than £1.2 million this year alone!
Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Streetwise Manager Luke Colaluca adds: “This is the first year Rushcliffe has applied for the funding and we are delighted to receive the full £25,000 available. We are looking forward to delivering this project as it’s one that we hope local residents and business can relate to. A huge thank you to Keep Britain Tidy and the Chewing Gum Task Force, as well as Eco Removal Solutions for providing the new equipment and training for our staff.”
The Council says monitoring and evaluation carried out by ‘Behaviour Change’ has shown that, in areas which benefitted from funding last year, a reduced rate of gum littering is still being observed six months after the clean-up and installation of prevention materials. Let’s hope this will be the case here in Ruddington, too!
