“WE CAN put a man on the moon but we haven’t been able to get chewing gum off pavements.”

So says the Hampshire inventor of a new machine which he claims will revolutionise street cleaning.

Cleaning firms across the world seem to agree as Martin Whitbread, from Hayling Island, and Jared Brading, from Gosport, say they have already taken orders for 1,700 of their new Steam-e machines.

Martin, 56, ran a commercial contract cleaning firm for 16 years and says that chewing gum was his arch enemy.

He explained that up until recently the only way to remove sticky gum from the streets was to use a steam cleaner which was “basically a huge boiling kettle” which used a great amount of electricity.

Together with Jared he has now developed a smaller machine powered by propane known as the Gumwand.

He says a couple of thousand were sold globally but many potential customers were put of the product because it was powered by gas.

What was needed was a battery.

However, experts told the pair that told that there no battery capable of producing enough steam for a cleaner.

Martin and Jared then decided to approach the problem from a different angle by looking at what would happen is the battery only had to heat a tiny amount of water at the point of contact with the gum.

The pair have developed a chemical, made from sugar beet, which when heated with a few drops of water forms a vapour which destroys the gum.

This means the Steam-E is completely portable – the 14kg machine sits on wheels and resembles a small square vacuum cleaner.

The cleaners, which cost £2,800 each, will dramatically reduce the cost of removing gum say the duo.

“According to Keep Britain Tidy’s figures 94 per cent of streets have gum on them,” said Jared. “The reason you see so much on the pavement is that it costs so much to remove.”

A commercial cleaner might costs between £300 and £500 per day to operate, said Martin, who claims that a Steam-E will cost around £5 per hour.

The cleaner was developed at Steam-E’s HQ in Fareham and the machines are made in Chichester.

“It’s a British machine for a worldwide problem,” said Jared, 37.