WOOTTON Bassett Town Council is by no means the first council to consider chewing gum to be a menace.
In July 2002, the then Swindon mayor, Councillor Stan Pajak, called for those people who dropped their chewing gum on the floor to be fined at least £100 as part of an extension to current local government laws that permit them to fine litter louts up to £2,500.
Then in August this year Swindon Council announced that it was to spend an extra £100,000 to clear gum and graffiti from the town centre.
It joined other councils including Woking and Aberdeen councils in spending money specifically to clean up the chewing gum menace.
It demonstrated the machines it would use to clean up the gum, by subjecting it to a high-pressure jet of water at a temperature of 140F melting it from the pavement or road.
An operation using two such machines along the Parade and Canal Walk took two days alone to complete.
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