Croydon gum update | 4 million pieces cleaned up (and counting)
AndrewsGumWorld has visited Croydon in the UK before for the efforts by its Business Improvement District (BID) to rid the town of the “scourge” of gum — a process which has led to the cleaning up of at least 4 million pieces of gum over the past year.
According to this morning’s Croydon Advertiser, the BID has launched a new phase of the effort (incidentally, pictured above are golden gum fighters Phillipa Trixter and Bevan Allen at the BID launch), with the town mayor, Jonathan Driver, passing out gum wraps for gum disposal. Additionally, gum spotters are giving £10 gift vouchers to those “caught” properly disposing of their gum, and the £75 fine for spitting out gum remains in effect.
According to Ros Morgan, manager of the Business Improvement District, all of these efforts have a positive end result for the town, as today’s article reported:
“We will be closely monitoring the campaign at ten locations in and around the centre.”We will be checking during it and when it ends to see what effect it has had on the amount of gum on the streets.”
She added: “We have spent a lot of money on power washing the streets but clearing up gum is considered by businesses to be very important.
“It is all part of making Croydon a safer place and ensuring people enjoy themselves when they come here.”
“There is no point in organising events like fashion and food festivals to get people in, if they find the centre is unattractive when they arrive.
“We want to raise people’s awareness of the problem and alert them to their responsibilities”, Ms Morgan said.