Brighton and Hove is demanding a tax on chewing gum to fund an anti-littering campaign.

Removing blobs of gum, known as gobbets, from pavements costs taxpayers £25,000 a year and the city council has now joined 34 other local authorities in backing a campaign by Westminster City Council to make gum producers help meet the environmental cost.

A national education campaign would cost about £9 million, the equivalent of a penny-a-packet litter tax, according to Westminster.

The chewing gum industry today reiterated its pledge to set up a fighting fund to help councils combat chewing gum littering.

But a source at Westminster council's offices in central London said: "We are sick and tired of the constant promises, promises, promises from Wrigley. What we want now is the why, the when, the where and the how.

"Wrigley is on the back foot with this show of unity from towns and cities throughout Britain. They can no longer deny this isn't as much of a problem in places like Brighton as it is in the big inner cities."

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of Brighton and Hove's environment committee, said she wanted the firm to pay towards an anti-litter campaign instead of cleaning, as there was a danger people would think they could drop gum anywhere as they had already been taxed for cleaning it up.

She said: "I would have thought the emphasis should be on stopping people dropping it in the first place."

She is to meet council officers to discuss using new antisocial behaviour legislation against people who drop gum in the streets.

Contractors in Brighton and Hove clean up 2.2 million pieces of gum a year, covering more than 48,000 sqm of pavement.

However, the idea of taxing gum chewers does not have universal support among businesses in the city.

Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, said: "People should behave responsibly in the first place.

"I think it is pie in the sky to assume because you put a penny on a pack of chewing gum people are not going to drop it on the pavement. I don't think it will work."

Alison Ward, a spokeswoman for the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Association, which speaks on behalf of Wrigley, said: "The chewing gum industry is working with the Local Government Association, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Education and Skills, ENCAMs (formerly Tidy Britain Group) and the Chartered Institute of Waste Management to find ways of preventing the real cause of gum litter - irresponsible disposal.

"A campaign to prevent gum littering and an innovation fund that councils can access to tackle the issue will be put in place this year.

"The chewing gum industry continues to invest significant amounts of money to find a research and development solution to the problem of gum litter, which it is committed to continuing.

"There are 28 million gum chewers in the UK, many of whom chew for the health benefits it delivers. We believe that working with DEFRA through the Chewing Gum Action Group, in addition to other education programmes, is the best way to tackle gum litter."