BRIDGWATER residents are being urged by the council to bin their chewing gum rather than drop it on the pavement.

Sedgemoor District Council spends around £16,000 a year on pavement washing, which includes getting rid of discarded chewing gum.

Cllr Richard Burden, portfolio holder for the Environment, said: “Chewing gum is a plague on our pavements.

“It is a blight which costs councils a fortune to clean up and takes hours of hard work to remove. “It’s ugly, it’s unsightly and it's unacceptable.”

On a national level, chewing gum manufacturers have been asked to help councils cover the multi-million pound cost of cleaning gum off the streets.

The Local Government Association wants manufacturers to contribute towards costs of proper disposal.

It is thought that while an average piece of gum costs around 3p to buy, clean up expenses stand at around 50 times that figure.