SWINDON Council is battling to clear a two-week backlog of graffiti removal work caused by the hosepipe ban.

The ban was imposed on April 5 by Thames Water following the driest two-year period on record, and meant the council’s Street Smart team could not use water jets to remove graffiti.

However, the team at contractor Swindon Commercial Services got straight back on the job when the ban was lifted on June 13, after an extraordinary amount of rain eased the regional water shortage.

Coun Fionuala Foley, Swindon Council’s cabinet member for Street Smart and corporate services, said: “We’re getting back to normal now.

“Where it’s small bits of graffiti, we can get it off with a cloth and graffiti wipes and chemicals.

“But where it requires a big pressure jet wash, where they really need to blast it, it takes a lot of water, so obviously we couldn’t do that.

“But now the hosepipe ban has gone we’re catching back up.”

Coun Foley said the problem had not become an issue with residents because no one had complained about the increase in graffiti, but she hoped it would soon be brought under control.

“We’ve got a great amount and we’re getting through it,” she said. “They got straight back on it so I now hope it will all be cleaned up within the next few weeks.”

Coun Foley said the council can clean up graffiti on private property free, providing it has a signed agreement from the owner, and it can also give residents graffiti wipes to clean up tags and smaller areas.

She said: “When graffiti is on a private property, we can remove it but we have to put a disclaimer form through the door and hope people will fill it in and send it back to us.

“If it’s a private property, we aren’t allowed to remove it without a signed form.”

Hosepipe bans were imposed on April 5 by Thames Water and six other firms.

The firm said it was possible to lift the ban after the county received two and a half times the average rainfall in April, steady showers in May and further monsoon-style downpours in June, with more forecast.

The Met Office recently announced that it had been the wettest June across the UK since records began in 1910, with a total UK rainfall of 145.3mm – exactly twice as much as is normally expected.

Wiltshire received 120 per cent of its usual June rainfall in the first 11 days.

As well as the graffiti cleaning backlog, Swindon Council’s new interactive splash park for children was only used for the first time last week after its opening was delayed.