Completed projects
Chewing Gum Taskforce
The council was one of 56 authorities nationwide to successfully secure funding through the Chewing Gum Task Force. £25,000 was awarded by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to support the removal of chewing gum from pavements and to help prevent future littering.
What is the Chewing Gum Task Force?
The Chewing Gum Task Force was established by Defra and delivered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, working in partnership with major chewing gum manufacturers. The initiative aimed to clean historic gum staining and encourage responsible disposal, with industry funding of up to £10 million over five years.
Why was the Chewing Gum task force being launched?
Chewing gum litter had cost UK councils an estimated £7 million a year to clean, with the majority of streets and retail areas affected.
In Stoke‑on‑Trent, the project launched in the city centre in August 2023, supported by targeted artwork to encourage residents and visitors to bin their gum responsibly. Chewing gum littering was treated as a criminal offence, with enforcement action taken where necessary.
Alongside this work, the council continued to tackle wider waste issues through its Illegal Dumping in Our Towns (IDIOT) campaign, addressing larger-scale fly‑tipping across the city.
Love your street
A targeted campaign to tackle illegal dumping was launched across hotspot streets in Stoke‑on‑Trent as part of the Love Your Street initiative, funded by DEFRA.
The council focused activity on six streets across the city, each of which had averaged around 30 reported incidents of illegal dumping over a 12‑month period (2022/23). The streets included Portland Street (Hanley), Goldenhill Road (Fenton), Lindley Street (Burslem), Cauldon Road (Shelton), King William Street (Tunstall) and Fletcher Road (Stoke).
During the campaign, residents were supported to dispose of household waste correctly, alongside increased CCTV coverage, signage and enforcement action. DEFRA funding of £46,000 enabled the deployment of eight mobile CCTV cameras, allowing the council to target problem areas more effectively.
The Love Your Street campaign ran in the identified locations until the end of September.
Love Stoke-on-Trent
As we embark on our Centenary year, we are asking for your help to make the city sparkle!
We're hosting a city-wide clean-up event for the entirety of 2025. There will be activities happening throughout Stoke-on-Trent, so you can easily find a way to get involved.
Over the past year, we've seen a fantastic community effort to reduce illegal dumping. Residents, groups, and businesses have come together under the #LoveSOT banner to organise litter picks and clean up their neighbourhoods. This momentum is key!
As well as your ongoing support, our environmental services team has issued over 1,500 fines for illegal dumping and removed more than 5,000 instances of dumped waste. We've also increased fines for environmental crimes to further deter offenders.
However, keeping our streets clean is a team effort. That's why your help is so important!
Events in your area
You can make a difference all year-round. Many local groups organise regular litter picks. Do you know of any regular litter picks in your area?
Let us know by emailing environmental.admin@stoke.gov.uk. We'll help spread the word and connect you with your local clean-up crew.
Together, we can make Stoke-on-Trent a cleaner and more pleasant place for everyone!
Please remember: Dress for the weather, wear appropriate footwear and bring a bottle of water.
| Date | Location / Meeting Point | Time | Contact / more information |
|
Regular dates (contact Cllr Gordon-McCusker for more information) |
Hollybush and Blurton | Various |
Cllr Finlay Gordon-McCusker
|
|
Regular dates (contact Cllr Dodd for more information) |
Dresden, Florence and Goms Mill | Various |
Cllr Lillian Dodd |
|
Regular dates (contact Cllr Sharpe for more information) |
Fenton | Various |
Cllr Lyn Sharpe
|
|
Regular dates |
Birches Head and Northwood | Various |
Birches Head and Northwood Volunteers Community Group Instagram page |
|
Regular dates (contact on Facebook for more information) |
St. Paul's Churchyard and surrounding area | Various |
Middleport Matters |
|
Regular dates |
City Centre | 28 & 29 March from 10am | Stoke-on-Trent BID https://www.facebook.com/StokeonTrentCityCentreBID/?locale=en_GB |
Contact your local ward councillor to borrow any litter picking equipment. You can arrange to have any bagged litter collected by emailing environmental.admin@stoke.gov.uk. Please include the location in your email.
Pledges from businesses
Following the success of the illegal dumping campaign, a number of local businesses have pledged their support to help us clean up Stoke-on-Trent during September and beyond.
Organisations will be out and about across the city to help improve community spaces that are important to residents.
Pledges received...
|
“Community involvement is important as when residents get together with a common goal, communities can be transformed” (Vicki Gwynne, Middleport Matters) |
|
By supporting this campaign we get to show our love for our home! For the campaign we will be encouraging fans to collect litter in and around the stadium on matchdays with Port Vale incentives attached. (Will Turner, Port Vale Football Club) |
|
I know the majority of us wouldn’t dream of behaving like this, but sometimes not being part of the problem isn’t enough - we need to be part of the solution, too. If everyone does a little bit, it will go a long way towards making a big difference. (Mark Waddington, Editor of The Sentinel) |
|
It is right we take pride in the city where we work and, to the greater extent, where our employees live and enjoy leisure time too. (Nigel Pye, i.creation) |
|
Simarco Clean-up is a small act to protect our environment and make an incremental difference in and around our local communities. The Stoke-on-Trent based Clean-up will be carried out by a group of Simarco volunteers who are passionate about keeping the local areas environmentally safe and tidy. (Sumeer Chakuu, Simarco’s Sustainability Supply Chain Manager) |
|
We know how important it is for our communities to be clean and free from litter. We are committed to working alongside others in the communities in which we work and will be undertaking our own litter pick every three months. (Tracey Johnson, Chief Executive, Epic Housing) |
|
As a local resident, I feel it is our responsibility to keep our own area clean. We need to take pride in our own streets. (Shafiq Ahmed, The Haji Bashir Ahmed Foundation) |
|
We're really proud of our city here at Handelsbanken and wanted to get involved to do our bit to keep the area clean for locals. we regularly clean the area outside of the office so this felt right up our street! (Claire Evans, Assistant Banking Manager, Handelsbanken) |
|
We were delighted to get involved with 'Love Your City' fortnight! We teamed up with the UPS Focus on Abilities BRG who enable people with disabilities to experience jobs though hand-on training. This project provided an opportunity for our members to learn and implement new skills. (Natasha Gratton, CEO, Project Indi) |