A YORK council chief is backing calls for a chewing gum tax to help meet the annual £150 million cost of clearing gum from pavements.

Local authorities, led by Westminster City Council, are pressing for a penny-a-packet tax to tackle the scourge at the first national "gum summit" in London.

They are concerned that new legislation could reclassify gum as litter, increasing pressure on them to clean it up and bringing a massive rise in costs.

They say an alternative to the new tax would be a voluntary contribution towards clear-up costs from the manufacturers, who are believed to sell more than £240 million of gum each year in Britain.

In York, a "gum-buster" machine is deployed to remove gum from pavements in shopping areas.

The £30,000 annual costs are met partly by City of York Council, and partly by the York Business Pride initiative, said Coun Andrew Waller, the council's executive member for the environment.

He said he fully backed the calls for a chewing gum tax, which he said was in line with the "polluter-pays" principle.

"The responsibility for paying for it should be met by the people that profit from it," he said.

York MP Hugh Bayley, who raised the problem of discarded chewing gum with Tony Blair during Prime Minister's Questions last December, said he favoured a substantial voluntary contribution from the gum manufacturers rather than a tax.

He would also like them to provide a container where people could put their gum when they had finished chewing it, and also to mount a publicity campaign to encourage people not to throw their gum on to pavements. But confectioners hit out at the gum tax proposals.

A spokeswoman for the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate And Confectionery Association, claimed that consumers would believe they had paid for the privilege of discarding gum on the streets.

She said the chewing gum industry did take the issue of gum litter seriously, and a campaign would be launched this year to persuade people to dispose of their gum responsibly -"just one of a number of measures the industry is funding to tackle the problem".

She added that the association welcomed legislative changes defining gum as litter, as it would mean the people dropping it could be fined.

What do you think?

Jan Hardcastle, 41, from Nunthorpe Road, York, said: "I am glad people are thinking about the problem because it really winds me up - it's horrible."

Simon Buckley, 40, from Poppleton, said: "I think chewing gum and dropping it is a disgusting habit. I think a tax would be fair - you only have to look at the city centre pavements to see the mess it makes."

Jason Hall, 26, from Escrick, said: "I'm not bothered to be honest. I don't think its going to make a difference whatsoever."

Rachel Emmerson, 17, from Riccall, said: "It might help stop people from throwing it down on the floor, because that makes a mess as it is."

Diana Trodd, 59, from Acomb, said: "Yes I do think it's fair. I just think it's horrible stuff. It looks absolutely awful."

Updated: 10:15 Wednesday, February 23, 2005