A special liquid which stops chewing gum sticking to the pavement is the latest tool being tested by a council to help clean up its streets.

Chewing gum costs councils millions of pounds each year to remove and many councils are asking for gum manufacturers to add a penny to the price of each stick of gum, which would be given to authorities to spend on the removal costs.

One stick of gum currently costs 3p to make and 10p to remove from the streets.

Crawley Borough Council is trialling a new solution called Protect It which apparently stops gum sticking to pavements.

A 50sqm area outside County Mall in Crawley has been cleaned and coated with the solution.

The trial, organised by Crawley Council, West Sussex County Council and County Mall, is the first of its kind in mainland UK.

Robbie Sharma, Crawley Borough Council's executive member for leisure and cultural services, said: "Crawley's streets are subject to a daily barrage of gum and the cleansing effort is like painting the Forth Bridge - a never-ending effort. It's also expensive to clean up."

If the free trial by manufacturers Total Surface Solutions and cleaning company Aqua Force is successful, the council will seek the necessary funding to use Protect It more widely in the town.

Coun Sharma added: "Of course, if people used the 355 litter bins in Crawley instead of dropping their gum on the ground, we wouldn't have to waste time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere to clean it up."

West Sussex County Councillor Derek Whittington, who has a special responsibility for street scene issues as policy adviser to the Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "I am delighted we were able to support this trial because chewing gum not only causes a blot on our street scene when it gets embedded in our pavements, it also costs a huge amount to clean up.

"We will be watching this pilot scheme with great interest."

William Stewart, operations manager at County Mall, said: "As Crawley increasingly becomes a retail destination of regional importance, it has literally got to clean up its act to attract shoppers to travel that extra mile to visit us.

"This initiative will play an important part in making Crawley a grade A destination and the obvious choice for a full day's retail therapy."

The trial is the latest battle in Crawley Borough Council's war on chewing gum.

The council has earmarked £14,000 in this year's budget to clean chewing gum off the town's streets.

A council spokesman said: "It's very time-consuming taking gum off the pavements. It eats up resources because two people are needed to work the machinery, which uses chemicals to turn the gum into powder so it can be scraped off."

The Protect It liquid removes the need for the machinery as the gum fails to stick on surfaces which have been treated with the solution.

If the trial proves successful it will be painted on pavements in Crawley's town centre and at the out-of-town shopping precincts, where the problem also exists.

Brighton and Hove City Council uses a gum removal machine to remove the sticky substance.

A spokesman for the council said: "We have considered this product but we don't think it's the most cost-effective solution for Brighton and Hove.

"It costs approximately £8 per square metre, whereas the way we remove gum at the moment costs about 50p per square metre."