EFFORTS to clean York's streets of chewing gum are being busted by grimy residents and tourists - despite the work of a £30,000 machine designed to remove it.

Council chiefs in the city have revealed that, as fast as their gum-busting machine clears it up, people are dropping still more used chewing gum.

A report to City of York Council's commercial services and advisory panel has suggested that more work be done to educate chewers to change their gum disposal habits.

The machine, which operates five days a week throughout the city centre, has been running for five months and was partly sponsored by York Business Pride.

Its task is to remove gum deposits and clear the streets of grease and grime near food outlets.

The report, written by director of commercial services David Finne-gan, states: "Clearly, this has depended a great deal on the co-operation of York residents and visitors with regard to their disposal of gum and fast food.

"In fact, despite considerable press coverage and a visible presence in the city centre, the first areas cleaned of gum are now as bad as when work started."

Executive member Coun Irene Waudby will be asked to either increase, or decrease, the service at a meeting to be held a week today.

Officers have recommended that the cleaning process begin again, with "additional effort" going into an awareness campaign.

The news came as researchers for Keep Britain Tidy revealed that Yorkshire was one of the grimiest regions in the country.

Coun Andrew Waller, the council's executive member for environment, said the authority was working hard and taking steps with York Pride to improve the appearance of the city, which included introducing fines for people caught dropping litter.

Adam Sinclair, chairman of York Business Pride, said: "We are very grateful for the efforts which the council's commercial services team are making.

"Clearly they need more resources, more machinery and more manpower.

"I will be meeting with David Finnegan over the next week or two to see how York Business Pride can help."

Updated: 08:33 Tuesday, February 24, 2004