A joint partnership between the Swindon probation service and Swindon Services is seeing young offenders given the task of cleaning up our town.

With a high-powered washer, which uses water and bicarbonate of soda to clean off spray paint, many of the borough's buildings are being cleaned up by some of those responsible for making them a mess in the first place.

Those on community service have been making short work of graffiti on one of the borough's worst hit housing estates Penhill.

Clive Miller, community service supervisor for Swindon probation service, took some of his young charges to test out the new equipment, known as a 'graffiti buster', on a wall in Lyndhurst Crescent.

He explained: "Graffiti is a terrible problem in Swindon, particularly on some of the housing estates, but this machine is excellent at wiping it out.

"People perform community service for all sorts of reasons, including cleaning up graffiti, and it will be ironic if they end up getting rid of the graffiti they made."

Swindon's graffiti buster was financed through a £36,000 grant from the Home Office.

Similar equipment has already been tried out in Durham and has shown amazing results and if the scheme is successful in Parks and Walcot, it may be rolled out across the rest of the borough.

Mr Miller said: "Many people associate graffiti with crime. Removing it removes the fear of crime, which is just what we need in some of our worst hit areas."

Starting in the Parks and Walcot area, he and his team will be starting their work officially at Cavendish Square on Friday.

Jeff Bond, transport manager for Swindon Services, who was responsible for providing the new equipment, said: "This is a great joint project which will benefit the borough enormously. We have provided the equipment and the probation service will now provide the manpower. It's a good use of people working in the community and perhaps the people cleaning off the graffiti who've done it themselves in the past will be put off doing it again."

Crime Concern in Victoria Road offers support and advice for the borough's young offenders.

Ironically, its HQ became the latest victim of young graffiti artists this weekend when its building, Beaver House, was daubed with offensive messages in white paint.

Police spokeswoman Alvina Kumar said: "Anyone who sprays paint or defaces property commits the offence of criminal damage, for which they can be arrested and prosecuted.

"It is not only unsightly but causes extreme annoyance to residents and passers-by and is costly to remove. We welcome the initiative by Swindon Borough Council in removing the graffiti and appeal to anyone witnessing such an offence to contact the police with as much information as possible."

n The graffiti buster is just the latest success story to emerge from the Swindon Services department, which employs the people who mow our parks, collect our refuse and keep our streets clean. See tomorrow's Evening Advertiser for a full report on the work of this award-winning department.