Graffiti removed from busy areas across the city

Graffiti has been removed from several busy areas across the city.

Heavily tagged publicly owned street furniture such as bins, benches and bollards have been cleaned by our Cityclean team.

We’re committed to reducing the amount of illegal graffiti around the city and launched a year-long programme of targeted action zones to remove graffiti in busy areas in Brighton & Hove.

There has been a noticeable positive impact with fewer tagging offences reported by our Environmental Enforcement Officers since the programme began.

We continue to work closely with residents and Sussex Police to identify and take action against taggers in our city. If you see someone tagging, please report it through our environmental enforcement hotline on 01273 295063.

Targeted approach

Since the programme commenced last year, 8 high-footfall areas have been completed.

The first targeted action zone was Church Road in Hove, where graffiti removal completed in September.

Since then, graffiti has been removed from street furniture on George Street, Boundary Road, Preston Street, Ship Street, Middle Street, St James Street and most recently, Valley Gardens.

The Cityclean team spend up to 2 weeks in each targeted action zone and are currently working on removing graffiti from Western Road.

They’re supported by Environmental Enforcement Officers will monitor completed targeted action zones moving forward. As part of their inspections, they will be issuing Community Protection Warnings and Notices to organisations who own street furniture, requesting them to remove graffiti or face enforcement action.

We have written to owners of commercial property in these areas to remove any graffiti from their property to support our team’s efforts. 

We'll update the details of the areas we're working on next on our graffiti targeted action zone webpage.

Rewarding outcome

Councillor Elaine Hills, Co-chair of the Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee, said: “The Cityclean team have significantly improved the look and feel of areas around the city as part of our targeted action zone programme.

“Tagging is a problem across the city and particularly in high-footfall areas, so it’s wonderful that the number of tagging offences have reduced in the targeted action zones.

“Since there are huge costs involved in removing graffiti from our streets, the aim of our targeted approach was to deter graffiti vandals by keeping street furniture clean and tag-free, which looks to be working.

“We know that the success of this programme will have a positive impact on residents and visitors alike.”

Reporting graffiti in the city

If you see hate-based or offensive graffiti or stickering, please report it though our environmental enforcement hotline or our online request a clean-up form.

We aim to remove offensive graffiti and stickering within 24 hours of it being reported to us.

We only remove graffiti when it’s offensive or on council property. You can find information about removing graffiti on private property on our what to do about graffiti webpage.