City centre shoppers are being urged to bin it, not spit it - by Bradford Council in a bid to solve a sticky problem.

Bradford is one of the first authorities in the north to install special bright red and yellow chewing gum bins in the city centre to discourage people from discarding their gum on the streets.

The Council says it costs about £40,000 a year to remove gum from the streets using high pressure water jets.

And now six foil-lined bins have been installed in Kirkgate, Bank Street, Hustlergate and the junction of Ivegate and Tyrrel Street in Bradford in an attempt to get rid of the sticky mess.

Twenty more will soon be in place in the district's town centres and in Centenary Square - one of the biggest problem areas.

In January the square was cleared of gum at the cost of £800 and the job took the equivalent of a week's work.

The new bins are manufactured in West Yorkshire and have proved successful in other areas of the country such as Sheffield and Derby. The move has been welcomed by the Council's planning committee chairman Councillor Syd Collard, who has been campaigning for the bins.

"I'm delighted with the news but I just hope that people will use them," he said. "Chewing gum is expensive and difficult to remove and it always leaves a mark. The whole city is littered with it but now there's no excuse for people spitting it onto the street.

"Hopefully the bins will make a real difference in spots like Centenary Square where there has been a huge problem."

Councillor Gill Whitfield, chairman of the Council's waste management sub-committee, said: "There is an average of 20 pieces of chewing gum per square metre on Britain's streets.

"Removing discarded gum is an expensive, time-consuming job and we can only hope these special bins will encourage people in Bradford to dispose of it properly."

Anyone caught dropping gum could find themselves with a £25 fixed penalty fine or fines of up to £2,500 through the courts.

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