Gum-buster gets to grips with seaside street menace

It is claimed the device will clear up 100,000 pieces of gum from Brighton and Hove's streets, while using only 3 per cent of the water used by other gum-busting machines.

The 123,000 piece of technology, called the "Local Authority Machine", will clear about 200 metres of pavement an hour, a council spokesman said.

Officials said the device, supplied by cleansing firm Gum Clear, is an improvement on older technologies because it sucks up and recycles 97 per cent of the water it uses.

The council said it won a 30,000 discount by helping develop the technology and demonstrating it to other local authorities. It also hopes to recoup costs by hiring it out.

Contractors in Brighton clean up as many as 2.2 million pieces of gum a year, covering more than 48,000m sq of pavement