Moves being lined up to rid Hawick streets of chewing gum

Hawick councillor George Turnbull in Trinity Street.

Hawick Community Council has agreed to work with town councillors in a bid to rid the town’s pavements of gooey gum remnants.

After a member of the public flagged up the state of the town’s paving stones at Monday night’s meeting of the council, Hawick and Hermitage councillor George Turnbull suggested funding be sought to buy a machine to tidy up the sticky mess.

“Chewing gum is a blight on our pavements and is now a national problem that needs to be taken seriously,” he said.

Chewing gum in North Bridge Street in Hawick.

“It is horrendous in some areas, and in the warm weather it’s getting stuck on heels and getting clarted everywhere.

“Over many years, I have campaigned for Scottish Borders Council to invest in equipment that is environmentally-friendly by jet-washing chewing gum off the pavements with no chemicals being involved, but to no avail.

“A few years ago, a company called Go-Gum came up from England to do a demonstration in the town, and to this day the area that they cleaned up, beside Wetherspoon’s in Bourtree Place, is still clean, but the council was less than receptive to commit to buying a piece of apparatus like that.

“I think the council does sometimes hire a trailer-type cleaner at weekends, but they only do sporadic cleaning.

A vennel off Hawick High Street riddled with chewing gum.

“It could be, thinking outside the box, that with some funding from whatever source, there could be a community machine that people could use to target certain areas.

“Other avenues need to be explored, possibly through local like-minded groups that could apply for funding and then share the equipment to tackle hot spots, which, in turn, would enhance the look of the area and the town.”

Hawick and Denholm councillor Stuart Marshall agreed, saying: “We should also try to find out where the hot spots are and engage with folk there, be it outside pubs and restautants. It could be that they can introduce extra bins to help takle the problem.

“I would support George fully on this. I think it might work if enough heads get together and funding is found.”

Fellow ward councillor Clair Ramage added: “Even if we just managed to get funding to hire a machine, that would be a great.

“If it’s four or five years since it was last done, it would be good to do it again.”