What to do about graffiti

What graffiti is

Graffiti is anything that is written, sprayed or painted in public places on public or private property. This can include text, images or other kinds of graffiti and street art.

Tagging is a type of graffiti where a name or symbol is written, sprayed or painted and is often repeated in different locations. It is a major issue in Brighton & Hove.

Graffiti tagging action plan 2024 lays out how we are tackling this.

All types of graffiti, tagging and street art are illegal without permission.

What graffiti we remove

We are responsible for removing graffiti and tagging on council property and street furniture, including:

buildings
benches
signs
street lights

We also remove offensive graffiti in public places.

Offensive graffiti

Offensive graffiti, tagging and street art contains words or pictures which are:

hate comments
extremist sentiment
anti-faith
swear words

If there is offensive graffiti, tagging or street art in public places, our street cleaning team will come and remove or paint over it.

We aim to remove offensive graffiti or tagging within 24 hours of it being reported to us.

Tell us about offensive graffiti or tagging if you see it.

If you are in a resident or community group, find out how we can help you to paint over graffiti.

Graffiti on bus stops and bus shelters

We have contractors who maintain bus shelters and bus stops in the city, including removing graffiti. To report graffiti on a bus stop or bus shelter, send an email to transport.projects@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Graffiti on private property

If graffiti or tagging on private property is offensive, let us know and we'll remove it.

If it isn't offensive, we can provide advice, but you will need to contact a private company to remove it.

If you want to prevent and remove graffiti from private property, you could:

apply an uneven wall surface like pebble dash or flint work
cover your wall in trellis, iron work or climbing plants
paint your own mural on your wall
keep spare paint for walls - painting over graffiti is the best way of stopping problems
paint over a whole wall, not just the section - walls with patches of paint often get graffitied again

Graffiti on statutory undertakers’ furniture

We are not responsible for removing graffiti or fly postings from train stations, railway bridges, underpasses, telephone boxes, post boxes or street cabinets.

for train stations and other railway property such as bridges, please phone Network Rail at 0345 711 4141
for telephone boxes please phone BT at 0800 661 610
for post boxes please phone Royal Mail at 03457 740 740
for Virgin Media street cabinets phone Virgin Media at 0330 333 0444
for BT (Openreach) street cabinets phone BT at 0800 023 2023

More information

To find out what else we're doing to tackle graffiti, read our Environmental Enforcement Framework.