THE sticky problem of chewing gum on the streets of East Hampshire is being tackled in a dedicated clean-up operation. Cabinet chiefs have set aside thousands of pounds for the second year running in an attempt to rid the district's towns and villages of discarded gum. Last year nearly £10,000 was spent on tackling the problem in Petersfield, Alton, Liphook, Grayshott and parts of Whitehill and this year other areas such as Liss, Four Marks, parts of Whitehill and Horndean look set to benefit. Brian Turner, East Hampshire District Council's (EHDC) streetcare manager, said the district did not suffer greatly with discarded chewing gum. "Last year was the first year that we specifically started clearing chewing gum," he said. "There is a good reason for that. This district does not have a large problem with discarded gum because we don't have very many large retail areas or big pedestrianised city centres. Therefore the problems tend to be pretty dispersed and less obvious. "That said we did get some money allocated by our cabinet last year of just under £10,000. With that we carried out a big cleaning process in Petersfield, Alton, Liphook, Grayshott and parts of Whitehill where we cleared all the pavements. It was quite a striking improvement. "The cabinet have allocated some money - around £7,000 - in our business budget this year and we will be looking to extend it to some other areas this year such as Four Marks, Liss, Whitehill and possibly Horndean. We will be talking to the parish councils of those areas to get some ideas as to what they think the problem areas are. "Looking at the areas that we covered last year they do not look too bad so it does not look like we will need to go back every year. What we could do is split the district in two and do each area every other year." The news comes after the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act was passed by parliament recently - paving the way for a new anti-litter initiative to be piloted in three areas of the country over the summer months. Under the scheme chewers will be offered pouches to deposit their gum in pedestrianised areas, while specially trained wardens in the trial areas of Preston, Manchester and Maidstone will issue fines from £50 up to £75 for persistent offenders. The initiative, co-ordinated by the government-sponsored Chewing Gum Action Group, is expected to lead to a national campaign later this year. Officers at EHDC are currently trawling through the new legislation before preparing a report to the cabinet. Mr Turner said: "The act basically widens our powers to prosecute people for fly tipping and it increases the fixed penalty fines that we can charge people for dropping litter and chewing gum. At the moment we can give a £50 fine for dropping chewing gum which is similar to that where people allow their dogs to fowl on the pavement. "The fines for dog fouling are increasing as well. The legislation also gives councils the ability to set their own levels of fines. We have not debated this yet and we are still working through the legislation document. "As a district we don't have a huge problem with litter or fly tipping, but we want to keep it under control so it stays that way."