Councils' graffiti clean-ups cost £290,000

Graffiti vandals have cost Black Country councils more than £290,000 in clean-up bills over the past 12 months, it emerged today.

Yobs spraying paint have forced authorities to employ specialist teams and bring in offenders under court orders to do unpaid work to rid buildings of unwanted graffiti.

Total clean up costs amounted to £298,397 in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton in the past year.

Sandwell Council officials spent around £80,000 to remove scrawl.

The council's cabinet member for safer neighbourhoods, Councillor Derek Rowley, said budgets had not yet been set for the next 12 months.

"Obviously we wish we didn't have to spend money on cleaning up graffiti — nobody wants to see it in the first place," he said.

"But we try to clean it up as quickly as possible as it lowers an area and sometimes the content of the graffiti is offensive.

"As well as our staff who clean up graffiti, low risk offenders doing Community Payback often clean up graffiti around Sandwell."

The cost of removing graffiti in 2009/2010 in Wolverhampton was £57,397.

There was outrage when the city's main cenotaph in St Peters Square was vandalised in October.

Council spokesman Tim Clark said: "We have had a recent appalling case in Wolverhampton where our cenotaph was vandalised by graffiti which rightly caused outrage in the community.

"The cost of hiring specialist contractors to clean this delicate stone memorial was around £1,000.

"Cleaning up other people's acts of vandalism costs taxpayers' considerable money. Graffiti is environmental crime just like littering, fly-tipping and fly-posting.

"It can have a very real affect on the appearance of a neighbourhood and on people's perception of how safe they feel. Crime such as this also has an adverse affect on regeneration as it can discourage investment in certain neighbourhoods and people choosing to come and live in certain areas."

Dudley Council spent a total of £88,000 on cleaning graffiti and used a response team to quickly clear obscene graffiti.

Council spokesman Phil Parker said: "The council removes offensive graffiti within 90 minutes of receiving a report and removes other graffiti within five working days of a report.

"Graffiti is unsightly and can be offensive and removing it is extremely important to ensure the environment is kept clean for borough residents and visitors."