Graffiti in West Swindon Picture Ref: 77352-49THE Adver is calling on Swindon residents to bring to justice the yobs that are blighting our town with graffiti.

Police in West Swindon say the problem has got so bad that there is hardly a flat surface left untouched.

In the latest incident vandals covered the walls of a police station with graffiti.

Officers at the West Swindon Police Point say they can't believe the cheek of the yobs who have sprayed their graffiti tags on the walls and shutters of the building.

WPC Pat Salter said: "I was rather astounded that anyone could have the audacity to put their tag on a public building, especially a police station.

"Especially as we are here to help people and to prevent this type of behaviour that so many people in the community get annoyed about.

"It's just a completely mindless act of vandalism."

She described the extent of the problem in West Swindon.

"Virtually every flat surface in West Swindon is marked with something," she said.

"We have constant and numerous calls on a daily basis about graffiti.

"There is graffiti on people's garden walls, house walls, on road signs and on fences.

"The calls we have received about this run into hundreds. "I don't know why but the problem seems to be worse on this side of Swindon than on the other.

"And when they start putting graffiti on road signs then the situation becomes dangerous." The police believe that one group of people is responsible for the graffiti across West Swindon as the same graffiti tags keep appearing.

These are: Zest, Tank, Fobia, Deck and ICA.

WPC Salter said: "These tags keep appearing, not just in West Swindon but in other parts of the town.

"We believe that a small group are responsible for this and we are aware of some individuals who we have advised about graffiti.

"We would like to find those responsible and divert their artistic abilities towards a more constructive purpose.

"There are plenty of projects around Swindon that would benefit from their artistry.

"We also think they should be made to clean up the graffiti.

West Swindon councillor Nick Martin (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) said: "It's a significant aggravation for people in West Swindon.

"We are employing our officers to go around cleaning it up and they have had a lot of work to do in West Swindon recently.

"Having had the amount of problems we have had with bus shelters and people's own homes being graffitied by young tearaways this says it all. I'm surprised they haven't done a police car.

"We believe it's a serious issue that could be dealt with more policing.

"If we dealt with this problem an awful lot of serious crime would never come to pass."

The Labour MP for South Swindon, Anne Snelgrove, added: "I would urge people who know about this to call the number and make sure that these yobs are caught.

"Graffiti is incredibly expensive to remove and I am pleased we have got more community support officers in the pipeline who will work with the police to combat this sort of thing."

The only way to stop these vandals is to expose those responsible.

If you know somebody who sprays graffiti or if you know who uses the tags mentioned in this article then contact Swindon police on 01793 501 794. Alternatively you should ring the anti-social behaviour hotline on 0845 605 2222, or contact Swindon police on 01793 528111 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Big bill for clean-ups

SWINDON council spends about £85,000 a year on graffiti removal.

Its Graffiti Busters team goes out every day to remove it. Red and black paint are the hardest to remove and it costs the council £70 in labour and materials to clean a wall.

In January the council allocated £40,0000 from its IT budget to the graffiti cleaning team.

Before this homeowners had to pay for graffiti to be removed from their property but the council now does the job for free.

A council spokesman said: "Graffiti is a blight on society and the council is determined to tackle the problem as effectively as possible.

"We spend approximately £85,000 a year on graffiti removal and now respond to public and private reports of graffiti and remove it free of charge."

He added that the council would be willing to clean the graffiti from the police station for free.

How you can help the police

According to police graffiti has been a problem in Swindon for the past seven years.

In March we reported on the fact that several underpasses in the area needed to be repainted weekly.

The same graffiti tags keep reappearing.

The police want to find those responsible for the Zest, Tank, Deck, ICA and Fobia tags.

Earlier this year a hotline was launched as part of the It's Your Call campaign, backed by the Adver, for people to report anti-social behaviour.

The Home Office run hotline was aimed at tackling nuisance neighbours, vandalism and abandoned cars blighting the area.

The line is still going strong and anyone who wants to report vandalism should ring the hotline number 0845 605 2222.

Diana Milne