Mayor Boris Johnson has declared war on chewing gum goo, vowing to rid the capital's streets of the sticky stuff.

£10m is spent every year blasting and scraping gum off pavements.

Talking at a meeting with gum makers, disposal and clean-up experts, borough councils and anti-litter groups, Johnson pledged to get London looking ship shape in time for the 2012 Olympics. 

It was revealed that a recent deep clean of Oxford Street uprooted over 300,000 pieces of gum and took three months to complete. Chewing gum takes up to five years to degrade and each piece costs between 50p-£2 to remove.

The gum summit discussed the new technologies and how to change people's behaviour, stopping them dropping gum in the first place.

Latest efforts include Gumdrop which recycles old chewing gum into plastic bins for discarded gum and even gum boards where users stick gum to a piece of cardboard taped to a street pole.

Revolymer has also come up with a gum which can be removed from the streets using only water.

Mr Johnson said:

"Gum detritus casts an unsightly stain on our beautiful city and scraping it off our streets is also a great drain on taxpayers ' money.

I want visitors in 2012 to be welcomed to a sparkling clean capital, not be greeted by the sight of chewing gum blighted streets."

The mayor has pledged to reduce litter in the capital in the run up to the 2012 games and will also host a litter summit with the Campaign for Protection for Rural England, London Councils and Keep Britain Tidy.

Mr Johnson also pointed to the annual London survey, which found that when asked to list two to three priorities for improving the quality of the environment, 20% of residents gave litter as a priority.

Photo - Anna Bullus