450 hours? Pendle Borough Council & gum
PHOTO: Trevor Ashby, Barnoldswick
Yesterday’s The Citizen, from Burnley, UK, reported that the Pendle Borough Council has spent 450.2 hours removing gum from streets in Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Barnoldswick (you can see one of the bus shelters that been the object of cleaning efforts in Barnoldswick, part of a nice page of photos of the town by Trevor Ashby), Barrowford and Earby.
The article noted that a request through the Freedom of Information Act showed that the Council’s efforts since May 2006 have represented nearly three months of work to remove gum from the streets and town centres of the villages listed above.
John David, leader of the Borough Council, suggests that the effort is worth it, but also frustrating given the time, money and prevalence of available litter bins and the £75 [US$110] fine for disposing of gum on the streets:
Councillor John David, leader of Pendle Council, said: “We do have a problem with gum in Pendle and we take a lot of time and effort scraping it off our pavements.
“No-one wants to get gum on their shoes and it looks a mess on our pavements too.
“People need to remember that gum counts as litter.
“They risk having to pay a £75 fine for dropping it.
“What they need to do is use a litter bin – and we provide plenty of those.”