Angry councillors from all corners of Britain flocked to London recently, intent on ridding the nation's streets of the latest social problem: gum crime.
No, it is not a typing error. Gun crime in London is a real and growing problem, for sure, as is other anti-social behaviour, such as fly-tipping (dumping rubbish illegally), street fighting, binge drinking and malignant traffic wardens, not to mention the new teenage-gang craze of beating up passengers on the top deck of a bus while filming it on their mobile-phone camera to replay to their friends in school detention.
No, I mean the outrageous, despicable act of wantonly discarding your chewing gum on the pavement, creating a carpet of splodges.
The summit, sponsored by Westminster Council, heard that on Oxford Street alone there are some 300,000 splodges, or 10 per paving slab. This is not surprising when 28 million Britons - half the country - chew the stuff. Supposedly, we get through 3.5 billion pieces a year, paying GBP300 million ($4.46 billion) for the privilege.
Pulling up their sleeves, the leaders from Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin and Belfast decided that it was time for action. After all, why should they pay the GBP150 million a year to clean the streets, using time-consuming, high-pressure water jets? The solution, they said, lies in prevention.
Not Singapore-style custodial sentences, admittedly, but a tax on the polluter, in this case the manufacturer - especially Wrigleys, which accounts for 90 per cent of the UK market. They want a 1 pence tax on every packet to pay for the clean-up, new laws to force manufacturers to print warnings on wrappers about where to put used gum, plus funds to finance educational awareness campaigns.
