Five local authorities in Wales are to receive a funding boost in order to help them remove used chewing gum from their streets.

Councils in Blaenau Gwent, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Newport and Swansea will get £1.85m from the Chewing Gum Taskforce Grant Scheme to help them clean gum off pavements and to invest in long-term behaviour change to help prevent the issue in the future.

Chewing gum litter costs the taxpayer an estimated £7m a year to clean up.

Deputy climate change minister Lee Waters said: ‘The need to get rid of chewing gum immediately after use means it is an item commonly disposed of irresponsibly, with gum staining present on more than two thirds of Wales’ streets.

‘Cleaning streets of gum is expensive and labour intensive. I’m really pleased this new fund has been established to support Councils across Wales and encourage people to think about the issues caused by chewing gum litter.’

Created last year by the UK Government and working together with the Welsh government, Scottish government and the Northern Ireland executive, the Chewing Gum Taskforce brings together the country’s major chewing gum producers, including Mars Wrigley, GlaxoSmithKline and Perfetti Van Melle, in a partnership to remove gum litter from UK high streets.

Under the scheme, administered by independent environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the chewing gum firms will invest up to £10m over five years.

More than 45 grants will be awarded this year across the UK and six of these will be used to fund innovative projects that encourage long-term behaviour change.

Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: ‘This is an exciting new opportunity for councils to tackle the ongoing problem of gum pollution.

‘The grants will allow councils to clean up historic gum litter staining in our towns and cities, as well as taking action to prevent people littering in the first place.’