Chewing gum makers are being asked to clean up their act and solve a sticky problem on the streets of Yorkshire.

Councillors in one East Yorkshire town, sick of blobs of gum on the pavements, have decided to lobby the manufacturers to change the gooey formula.

Pocklington Town Council will also ask gum makers to contribute towards costly industrial cleaners - the only way to remove their product from the streets.

Town council clerk Martin Layton said: "I must admit there was a bit of levity when the motion was first proposed. It seemed a very strange idea. But then we thought about it and we realised it was absolutely right.

"Every pavement in Britain is scattered with blobs of chewing gum and they are almost impossible to remove."

Meanwhile, a York bricklayer has called on the City of York Council to do more to solve the problem.

James Greenwood, 51, of Margaret Philipson Court, Aldwalk, off Goodramgate, said: "Just walk round the streets and footpaths of York and look at the white bits that have been trampled in. We have got some lovely streets in York stone that are simply covered in chewing gum, spat out and stamped in. It is a plague."

He said when he complained to the city council, he was told it would be too expensive to remove.

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