Council and police launch joint action against graffiti
We’ve teamed up with Sussex Police, local residents and businesses to tackle one of the worst graffitied areas in the city.
Providence Place and Ann Street, just off London Road, is covered in ugly graffiti, and we’ve been working with the local community to clean it up.
The anti-graffiti blitz, on Monday (19 July) was part of the UK’s first national Anti-Social Behaviour Awareness Week, running from 19 to 25 July, with the aim of bring people together to take a stand against ASB and highlight the importance of reporting offences.
Our environmental enforcement officers and the police advised the community on how to report graffiti crime in the area, and also when urinating, defecating and fly-tipping occurs.
Helping the community clean up graffiti
Although the council does not have the powers to remove graffiti from private buildings, we equipped locals with paint to clean graffiti from properties if landlords gave permission.
The council and police are also working with local action groups to tackle anti-social behaviour in the area.
Residents can call 01273 295063 to give details of the offences, and our officers will be able to respond quickly.
The phone line is open from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. A voicemail function is in place to take any messages for calls outside of these hours.
You can also find more information on our graffiti webpages.
Our officers hand out £150 fines
Our environmental enforcement officers can fine anyone found drawing graffiti on public and private land where they don’t have the landowner’s permission.
We issue £150 fines to anyone found committing the offence and will seize any material used to graffiti.
Graffiti includes anything written, sprayed or painted on public or private property. It's illegal to do this without permission.
We are not responsible for the removal of graffiti on private property. However, we can take legal action against offenders where we have evidence.
Offensive graffiti removed with 24 hours
Our street cleaning team will also remove or paint over any offensive graffiti in public places.
This includes anything racist, sexist, ageist, anti-faith, homophobic or full of swear words. We aim to remove offensive graffiti within 24 hours of it being reported to us.
We are also responsible for removing graffiti on council property, including buildings, benches, signs and streetlights.
If you are in a resident or community group, we also have a community clean-up scheme which could give you supplies to paint over graffiti in your local area.
