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Council – ''Let us know and we'll clean your graffiti for free'
7:00am Tuesday 6th November 2007
GRAFFITI continues to scar the town because homeowners are not giving graffiti cleaners permission to remove tags.
More than 900 private properties in the town are still marked with tags despite Swindon Council offering to wipe them off for free.
The council has sent out 1,427 disclaimers since April asking residents whether they want the graffiti on their homes removed.
But less than one third - 472 - have sent them back.
The council has run a number of Safe and Clean days throughout the town to blitz graffiti.
Park North, Broadgreen and Eastcott are among the areas that have been cleaned.
Only 24 households out of 120 in Broadgreen returned disclaimers allowing the council to wipe away tags on the Safe and Clean Day.
By mid-October only another eight more had been sent back.
The council says it has received no feedback on why residents are not allowing them to clean their properties.
Coun Martin Wiltshire (Eastcott, Lib Dem) said it was a shame more people didn't give permission during a Safe and Clean Day in Eastcott.
He said: "We cleaned off the graffiti from places we had permission for, but couldn't clean the rest where we didn't have consent.
"Sometimes we have to get permission from landlords who rent properties. It can be tricky to get hold of them.
"Maybe we should consider cleaning them without.
"The graffiti removal is a great service from the council, and people should take advantage of it."
Coun Colin Lovell, cabinet member for community and neighbourhoods, said: "We encourage people to take advantage of this free graffiti removal service, which aims to improve the environments where people live and work.
"Although we are pleased with the response to this service, there is still room for improvement. We urge people to consider the benefits of having graffiti cleaned away, which can make the general street scene so much better."
Almost 300 graffiti tags were scrubbed off around Park North in October. It was the highest number of tags removed in a morning since the Safe and Clean days started two years ago.
More than 250 tags were removed from Toothill in August.
Your Say YourSwindon
an idea, swindon says...
7:15pm Tue 6 Nov 07
at least something to be happy about the Council :)
Your sayYourSwindon
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PaulD, says...
1:52pm Tue 6 Nov 07
This is an excellent service by the council which you would be silly to miss out on if you have graffiti on your property or near you on public property