UK city mulls action against paan spitting

London: Britain's city of Leicester, which has a large Indian-origin population, is cracking down on people spitting paan in public places after complaints that the pavements are being stained.

Many of the Indian-origin population of the city enjoy chewing paan but now the local council feel the habit of spitting out the residue has got out of control.

Officials at Leicester City Council are considering bringing a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to try to stop the spitting along parts of Melton Road and Belgrave Road, known locally as the Golden Mile due to the large number of jewellery stores owned by many Gujarati-origin businessmen.

Local traders and residents in Belgrave are disgusted with their pavements being stained with red paan remains, according to 'Leicester Mercury'.

A city council spokesperson said: "We are aware of this problem which is unhygienic and leaves unsightly staining on pavements.

"We are looking at including paan spitting in a future city-wide Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which would give us more powers to tackle it.

"Our cleansing teams went out last year at the request of ward councillors and used anti-graffiti spray equipment to remove the paan from walls and dustbins, but the staining is very difficult to remove."

A few years ago a London council had also taken action against this habit among many of its Indian-origin residents.

Brent council launched?an education campaign about the problems of paan spitting, which carries an 80 pounds fine.

The area saw a marked improvement and now plans to re-launch the campaign to raise further awareness on the issue.

Paan is a mixture of tobacco, nuts and spices and is wrapped in a leaf, which is mainly chewed by members of the South Asian community in the UK.