BY gum! It may have just cost the council £6,000, but Eastleigh town centre streets are once again free of a particularly sticky problem.

Four main shopping streets have been given a spring clean to remove eyesore blobs of discarded chewing gum from pavements in a bid to improve the look of the town centre.

A contractor was employed to blast the gum off paving slabs, using high pressure steam and biodegradable solvent that allows operators to methodically work through each gum deposit and avoids blasting away any sand used to hold paving slabs in place.

The clean-up operation took about three weeks and has already drawn approving comments.

Town centre manager Dennis Chandler said: "The cleanliness of our town centre streets is very important and we are pleased with the results of our efforts to help improve the street scene for shoppers in the town.

"During the clean-up many members of the public and shopkeepers commented on how much better the streets look."

A council spokesman said removing chewing gum was a problem for all councils.

But chairman of the borough's Eastleigh Local Area Committee, Councillor Steve Sollitt commented: "We are committed to keeping our town centre clean and making it a pleasant environment in which to shop.

"Much of the problem is caused by a minority of people. The only sustainable way to deal with it is to encourage people to dispose of their litter properly."

Five years ago the council shelled out £2,000 to rid the shopping streets of the sticky remains of years of discarded gum.

At that time, the pock-marked pavements encouraged one disgruntled borough councillor to fire off a letter to Plymouth-based chewing gum manufacturers Wrigley, calling for them to produce a biodegradable gum in a bid to clean up the environment.

Wrigley said that although it had researched and produced a biodegradable product, it didn't taste too good, and while work was ongoing, the best solution to the problem was to educate the public to dispose of their gum properly.

Part of the clean-up is pictured above.