Chewing gum causes €30,000 sticking point

THE stains on St Patrick’s Street are wicked. It’s going to cost €30,000 to fix it.

The local authority is facing that hefty clean-up bill to remove hundreds of chewing gum stains from Cork’s main street.

The recently revamped St Patrick’s Street, designed by Catalan architect Beth Gali at a cost of €13 million, was named Ireland’s best shopping street in a Department of the Environment awards scheme shortly after it opened last year.

But its wide sweeping tree-lined footpaths of limestone and granite have been destroyed by people dumping chewing gum on the light-coloured pavement.

“We are concerned about it. All our litter bins have room for gum,” a spokesman for the council’s environment department said.

But the situation has become so bad, officials have had to advertise for contractors to tackle the mess.

Six tenders are being examined. The contract should be awarded within two weeks.

It is hoped work will start immediately. It is not known how long the process will take.

“We’ve asked the contractors to outline the work involved,” the council spokesman said.

“We will evaluate their process on a number of items, including how long the work will take and to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with surface of the pavement.”

Parts of the footpath will be sealed off while work is underway.

But it could be done at off-peak times to minimise disruption, he said.

And as work on the Oliver Plunkett Street pedestrianisation project nears completion, gum stains have also begun to appear in this area. However, the cleaning contract will tackle St Patrick’s Street only, the spokesman said.

“We are examining the Oliver Plunkett Street area,” he added.

Meanwhile, other stains have ruined the pavement surfaces of some of the city’s key pedestrianised side streets.

Huge stains were visible on Winthrop Street and Princes Street yesterday.

The spokesman said a street scrubber and vacuum cleaner washes St Patrick’s Street and Emmet Place only.

But there are no immediate plans to extend the washing programme to these areas.

A recent council anti-litter poster campaign on St Patrick’s Street’s bus shelters targeted cigarette dumping, chewing gum and dog fouling.

People face a €125 on-the-spot fine for littering. The maximum fine is €3,000.