ACTION to stop the scourge of chewing gum stuck under tables, ground into seats and dropped in the street is being demanded by an East Lancashire MP.
Burnley's Peter Pike wants the Government and local councils to tackle the sticky problem.
He raised the issue with Environment Minister Micheal Meacher in the Commons yesterday, asking him: "Has any environmental services department yet come forward with a solution to the problem of discarded chewing gum that we experience everywhere?
"It really needs to be solved."
Mr Meacher replied: "I am certainly not stuck up on these kinds of problems. Depositing chewing gum on pavements, or on any surfaces is a particularly disgusting habit.
"We intend in both the urban and rural White Papers to come forward with proposals to deal with litter as well as graffiti.
"I am in touch with one of the major manufacturers of chewing gum to see whether it can find a way of producing biodegradable chewing gum."
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