COUNCIL chiefs are planning to spend £40,000 on a chewing gum removal machine in a bid to help clean up Burnley town centre.

The borough council has been on a drive to prevent people from dropping gum with officers patrolling the streets and issuing fixed penalty notices of £75 to those caught littering.

Now with hundreds of thousands being invested in the town centre bosses want to ensure it is kept clean.

The cash has been allocated as part of the council's £3million capital programme.

It is hoped the machine will be more cost effective as it will allow them to clean a larger area rather than just one piece at a time.

But former MP Gordon Birtwistle slammed the decision after it was revealed earlier this week that the cost of the town centre regeneration had risen by £650,000.

Cllr Lian Pate, executive member for community services, said the council had been trialling a number of machines.

She said: "The difficulty with chewing gum is to get it off it is one man with a powerful little spray which lifts one piece of at a time.

"It is a full time job.

"What the council wants to do is get a bigger machine and it has been looking at a number of options which, rather than doing one piece at a time, will cover the full paving slab.

"The idea is to invest in this so it will take less time and would give us a better return."

She said the machine could also be hired by other councils.

Earlier this year the council adopted a tougher approach in a bid to punish people who were dropping litter, including chewing gum, and letting their dogs foul.

As part of a scheme with Kingdom Environmental Enforcement Services patrols were introduced to issue on-the-spot £75 fixed penalty notices.

Cllr Pate said: "The best thing for us would be if people did not chuck it on the floor in the first place. My message to everyone is to put it in the bin as it is horrendous to get off the pavements, it looks awful and it stains. It is about a behaviour change.

"The issue seems to be with the night time economy. You find it outside pub doors and on the paving around those areas."

She said the new paving slabs used for the regeneration were resistant to staining.

"It looks lovely and clean and I hope people will keep it that way."

A spokesman for Burnley Council said: "We have had an on-going campaign to try and encourage people not to drop chewing gum.

"We are investing a lot of money in refurbishing and regenerating the town centre so we want to try and keep that as clean and tidy as possible."

Former Burnley MP and Liberal Democrat group leader Gordon Birtwistle said it was a lot of money for something that would only be used occasionally.

He said: "I think they should hire it when they need it.

"As well as the machine you would have to hire one, maybe two people, to operate it.

"It is £40,000 to use only a few times a year.

"That pales into insignificance compared to the money they have overspent on the regeneration scheme.

"They've asked for an additional £650,000 and now they're spending £40,000 on a machine to keep it clean."