Council vows to clear Walsall streets of discarded chewing gum
More than 350,000 pieces of spat out chewing gum was picked up during a deep clean of Walsall town centre – but council bosses believe thousands more have been discarded since.
The shocking figure was revealed by Walsall Council deputy leader Adrian Andrew, who said the gum was collected during a deep clean of town centre streets.
The authority has vowed to continue its war on environmental crimes and issued a defiant “We’re coming to find you and fine you” message to people blighting the town.
At a cabinet meeting this month, the authority agreed to award a new environmental enforcement services contract to LA Support Limited, who will hit offenders with fixed penalty notices.
The range of offences has been increased from the current littering, dog fouling and minor fly-tipping to include rubbish thrown from vehicles, fly posting and commercial and household waste duty of care offences.
Earlier this year, the authority also agreed to increase fines for offences to the maximum possible.
And it hired extra ‘barrowmen’ across the borough to collect rubbish from streets and has supported volunteer community litter picking groups.
Work to clean up Walsall Town Centre was also carried out as the Master plan aimed at revitalising the area kicked off in October but Councillor Andrew said they needed to get tougher on offenders.
He said: “When we did the deep clean of the town centre, I’m told that 370,000 pieces of chewing gum have been removed from the town centre.
“If you go into Walsall now, there’s got to be 200,000 already back down again.
“It’s not the council throwing the litter, this is the people in the town. We’ve got to start having tougher penalties and getting people caught who are committing environmental crimes.”
Council leader Mike Bird added: “There will be a frequent use of the ‘f’ word in our vocabulary – and that is fine.
“Litter doesn’t fall from the sky, it’s dropped there by the people who live or visit this town and nothing angers me more than when I see an adult walking down the road with a child who throws litter on the floor.
“That child grows up thinking that’s acceptable but I’m sorry, we’re coming to look for you. You will get fined.
“There is no place for people who want to throw litter on the streets of Walsall whether that be the town or district centres. It is totally unacceptable.
“The message is we’re coming to find you and we’re going to fine you.”
Councillor Garry Perry, cabinet member for community leisure and culture: “People are starting to recognise the efforts being made in cleaning up our borough.
“The comments that are coming back from the public are really positive.”
