Clause 27 - ''Litter''
Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill
10:30 am
Ms Sue Doughty (Shadow Minister (the Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Guildford, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman has a good point. We have not tabled an amendment on the subject, as we do not necessarily subscribe to that solution, we merely say that such a suggestion could be considered, and we need to look at what can be done about the problem of chewing gum. The hon. Gentleman and I throw the stuff in the bin, carefully wrapped up; there may be a problem with the sample from the statistics taken by the chewing gum action group, which found that sooner or later, everyone throws their gum on the ground. The hon. Gentleman and I may be the exceptions; the problem is widespread.
The purpose of the new clause is to ask the Government to get much tougher with the manufacturers, and to look for appropriate solutions that deal with people who throw chewing gum on the ground. There is a huge problem, which will continue if we do nothing about it, as shown in Westminster, where things got just as bad again soon after the stuff was cleaned up.