A major city centre road has been slammed as ‘Chewing Gum Street’ — but that’s despite the best efforts of the businesses on it, and council.
Peter Street, which houses some of Manchester’s best-known bars like Dirty Martini, Impossible, and Peaky Blinders, has earned a reputation for chuddy-lined pavements.
However, the Manchester Evening News has spoken to various businesses along the street, who all do their best to remove the chewie. The Council is also spending £100,000 annually on cleaning up the mess.
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Although staff on the street do not get complaints from customers, it is something which bothers them. Hollie, a manager at Impossible, told the MEN : “I have never heard it from a customer. I notice it myself, so if we can clean it we do — but some of it is there for good. We sweep outside every night, so we can get some fresh chewing gum but that’s all.
And the manager of Dirty Martini across the road, who asked not to be named, added: “Bruntwood washes it occasionally. They clean the sidewalk. No customer has come up to me about it. It does bother me a little bit. It does not look clean.”
Manchester City Council spends £100,000 per year cleaning up the gum — and more is spent by business improvement district CityCo, which also commissions cleaning. Peter Street was last cleaned in September, a council spokesperson said.
"Chewing gum has no place on the pavements, it is unsightly, and we know that people want pavements clean and gum free which is why we commission work to steam clean them to remove stains and chewing gum,” a statement from the authority said. “The last clean up included Peter Street in September. There are 700 bins across the city centre for people to put their gum and litter into.
“Last year we worked with Mars Wrigley on a chewing gum campaign on Market Street, High Street, Exchange Square and Cutting Room Square to encourage people to bin their gum. We installed gum bins and stepped-up digital advertising on the consequences of dropping gum, and this resulted in a 42 percent drop in gum littering across all the sites.
“We will continue to crack down on the irresponsible minority who consider it acceptable to drop litter and this could cost them a fine of up to £100 and we would reiterate that with 700 bins across the city centre there is simply no excuse to drop gum on the streets."
How do you think chewing gum litter should be tackled? Let us know in the comments.
However, such is the scale of the problem on Peter Street, Pat Karney — the Council’s city centre spokesperson — tweeted a photo of the pavement asking for help on how to tackle it. “Chewing Gum St, (formerly Peter St),” he said.
“If it carries on it will be fully covered in gum. How do we stop it?”
His question led to some varied replies. One, from Jamie McGrath, called for a ban on selling gum.
“Ban the sale of it, I've been to countries where they did that and people adjust to having mints instead pretty quickly,” he said.
In principle, it’s an idea Coun Karney is behind. When asked by the MEN if he supported Mr McGrath’s suggestion, he said: “I think we need to take it in stages. It’s up to the chewing gum industry to come up with the chemical that will dissolve. If they cannot do that, I would personally be in favour of banning it.
“Councils across the land have to spend millions on steaming pavements, I think the chewing gum industry has had plenty of chance to come up with that substance. In the short-term they should give money to councils to clean it.
“The difficulty is getting it off. A road sweeper cannot do it. You need radical action and that is the chewing gum industry coming up with that substance.
“To get chewing gum off the city centre’s streets, we would need to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
MARS Wrigley has been contacted for comment.
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