A Kent council is ready to clear its streets of chewing gum after being awarded almost £16k to tackle the sticky issue.

Maidstone council has won a grant of £15,849 from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.

The money will be spent on cleaning up gum from the pavements and reducing gum littering.

The borough is one of 52 local authorities to have won a grant from the DEFRA scheme this year, which is now in its fourth year.

The scheme is funded by major gum manufacturers, including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, who have committed to providing £10m spread over five years.

The aim is not just to clean up used gum from the streets, but to educate gum-chewers not to drop it in the first place.

Research on areas that benefited from funding in the first and second years of the scheme found that in the first two months, gum littering was reduced by 80%, and observable reductions were still recorded six months later.

Maidstone’s cabinet member for environmental services, Cllr Clive English, said: "This is fantastic news.

“It means we can not only clean up the existing chewing gum that spoils our pavements and causes so much inconvenience, but we can also implement measures to stop it from happening in the first place.

“Our goal is to create a cleaner, more pleasant environment for everyone, and this funding is a crucial step towards achieving that."

Estimates suggest that across the UK, around £7 million is spent cleaning gum off the streets. Keep Britain Tidy calculates that around 77% of all streets are stained with gum.

Allison Ogden-Newton, CEO of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces, though thankfully this scheme is leading to significant reductions.

“People need to remember that disposing of their gum irresponsibly causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally – and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean it up.”