Donald Anderson: "We need a national campaign"

Councillor Anderson explained that cleaning streets with hot washes, which could only be done when there were no pedestrians about, was placing a dent in the council's finances.

"We need to find other ways of tackling this problem," he said.

"It is something that people find visually offensive and I have to say that I agree with that.

"It has been suggested that one of the options we could look at is a tax on the chewing gum itself, which could then be recycled into cleaning up the streets.

"I think that's a more than reasonable suggestion, given that the companies who produce this product don't actually engage very actively in trying to promote cleanliness.

What we need to do is wrap all these things up in a much higher level of awareness

Donald Anderson

"Perhaps a small tax on a pack of chewing gum would be enough to solve the problem."

Councillor Anderson admitted that any taxation on chewing gum would have to come from Westminster.

However, he pointed out that City of Edinburgh Council was already taking measures to tackle issues like dog fouling in its own area.

He said the council was also looking at introducing fines for people dropping litter on the street.

It is proposed to have 15 wardens, who have been dubbed "green meanies", patrolling the city later this summer.

"We have taken a number of measures to try and tackle this problem, but there are different approaches for different issues," he said.

"What we need to do is wrap all these things up in a much higher level of awareness of these issues, and I also think that we need a national campaign to confront some of these things."