Store joins war on graffiti (From Herald Series)

Store joins war on graffiti

8:09pm Wednesday 24th September 2008

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Police are going to war against graffiti vandals in Didcot with help from supermarket giant Asda.

Officers have been bought graffiti cleaning kits to tackle a growing problem of spraypaint in the area — especially on the Ladygrove estate.

Supermarket chain Asda — which has a distribution warehouse in the town — has paid for the kits and the clean-up.

PC Chris Ball, neighbourhood officer for the estate, urged residents to take pride in the appearance of the town — starting with ending the problem of graffiti tags.

He said: "There is a small amount of tags going on, but the problem is the larger bits of graffiti.

"We are looking to improve the general appearance of the estate. If you allow one piece of graffiti it encourages others — they think it is OK to do.

"We also want people to have pride in their estate and this may discourage people from doing it. If people see the estate nice and tidy it could discourage people from using graffiti.

"The bottom line is quality of life. If you graffiti a wall someone has to look at that every day from their window and that is not on."

The graffiti blitz will start mainly around Mersey Way, Edmunds Park, Hamble Road and the underpass at Didcot Railway Station — known locally as 'graffiti bridge'.

Asda has donated £200 for the cleaning kits which will be used by Oxfordshire Probation Service.

The idea followed a tour of the town by police and Didcot Town Council members highlighting the grot-spots.

Tracey Dineen, events co-ordinator at Asda Didcot, said: "We were delighted to make this contribution to support the police in its efforts to remove graffiti.

"We hope we have helped."

Oxford City Council lets residents report graffiti via photos in an email sent to photoreporting@oxford.gov.uk.

The graffiti is then cleaned up by the council.

Already this year the council has received 93 reports of graffiti.

Anyone with information on the graffiti or vandals should contact police on 08458 505505 or phone the anonymous Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555111.

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