CAMBRIDGE will be piloting new powers to tackle graffiti as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour, the Home Office announced today.
As part of Operation 'Scrub-It' Cambridge City Council will now be able to clean up graffiti on 'street furniture', such as phone boxes and railways bridges and charge back the cost to the owner if they have not removed the graffiti within the set time given by the council.
These powers are in addition to new laws that come into force today across England and Wales that ban the sale of spray paints to under-16s and allow penalty notices to be issued for graffiti and fly-posting.
The tough measures are contained in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to tackle the graffiti which spoils local environments.
Welcoming the new powers, Alastair Roberts, lead officer for the Cambridge City Community Safety Partnership on Anti-Social Behaviour, said: "These new weapons in our anti-social behaviour toolkits will help us build a cleaner, safer, more responsible city for residents and visitors to enjoy."
Operation 'Scrub-It' is part of the Government's TOGETHER campaign, which will equip local councils, police, housing officers, environmental health officers and others with the tools they need to deal with anti-social behaviour.
Neighbourhood wardens in Cambridge will be equipped with free anti-graffiti toolkits by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
The kits will enable neighbourhood wardens to remove graffiti covering an area bigger than two football pitches.
Mr Roberts added: "We have worked very hard in the city to tackle graffiti, and remove it as quickly as possible - to date this year we have been able to remove 95% of non-offensive graffiti within our target time of five working days and 100% of offensive graffiti within 24 hours.
"We have a 'zero tolerance' approach towards those engaged in 'tagging' and other forms of illegal graffiti. However, the City Council does provide a number of innovative diversionary and creative activities for people who wish to carry out this art form legally, as a positive alternative.
"These new powers enable us to make people take more responsibility towards keeping our city looking cleaner and smarter and will enable our hard-working anti-graffiti team to do its work more effectively."