Southend Council’s Deputy Leader, Cllr John Lamb, has expressed his disgust with graffiti vandalism in Southend.
Several ‘tags’ appeared on new bus shelters and street signs on the A13 London Road in Leigh, which have since been removed by the Council’s clean-up contractors.
Cllr Lamb said: “I was absolutely appalled and disgusted when I saw what these morons had done.
“Here we are spending some of our scarce resources on new bus shelters and road signage for the benefit of our Council Tax payers and how do these idiots respond?
“Every time we have to call out one of our graffiti teams to remove this disgraceful scrawl it ultimately costs local residents money.
“It’s time we started to fight back against these people and made them realise that we won’t tolerate their childish, irresponsible and utterly pea-brained actions.
“I would urge anyone who sees one of these so-called ‘taggers’ spraying graffiti to ring the police immediately.”
Cllr Tony Cox, Executive Councillor for Public Protection, said: “The Council has just enlisted the services of a new graffiti removal contractor, Community Clean.
“They have a wealth of experience in this field and they are committed to providing a reactive and proactive service in the town to remove graffiti.
“It’s an absolute outrage that they are finding themselves so busy this early into their new contract.
“The graffiti was removed as soon as it was brought to our attention and I sincerely hope we don’t see a repeat of this kind of loutish behaviour.”
Residents who witness taggers ‘in the act’ are asked to contact Essex Police on 0300-333 4444.
To report freshly sprayed graffiti for removal contact Southend Council on 01702-215006.
