Wembley, which is a majorarea in the London borough,is replete with streets stainedby ‘paan’ spittle. The Brentcouncil spends £20,000 everyyear to clean the stainsleft behind by consumers of‘paan’.
LONDON – Red-facedover a dramatic increase in spitting‘paan’ in public places, theLondon borough of Brent witha large population of Indianoriginresidents has decided tore-launch a campaign this year tostop people from doing so.Wembley, which is a majorarea in the borough, is repletewith streets stained by ‘paan’spittle. The Brent council spends£20,000 every year to clean thestains left behind by consumersof ‘paan’.The campaign launched bythe council in 2010, titled ‘It’sNasty Man: Don’t Spit Paan’, isset to be re-launched this year inview of the practice continuingto stain public places, councilsources told HT on Monday.The campaign combineda high visibility awareness withenforcement: a fixed penalty fineof £80 for criminal damage. Butless than 100 people were finedbecause of problems in catchingpeople in the act.Wembley’s streets arecleaned every day, but when‘paan’ spittle dries up, councilsources say it is ‘very difficult’to remove from the pavements.It requires a specialist cleaningteam to use high pressure washingand even this only removesup to 90% of the tougher stains.Council officials say that inthe last few years the amount of‘paan’ spewed on the streets ofWembley has increased ‘dramatically’.‘Paan’ spitting is mainly attributedto immigrants from Indiaand other parts of south Asiawhere ‘paan’ consumption (andspewing) is culturally accepted.Several shopkeepers of Indianorigin in the borough have alsocomplained about the stains ontheir premises after businesshours.
