With high-pressure hoses at the ready Newham Council is celebrating Graffiti Awareness Week (Oct 9-15) as a London borough with one of the lowest levels of visible graffiti.
Graffiti Awareness Week is being led by the Capital Standards programme and is dedicated to targeting graffiti prevention and removal.
Capital Standards was established to improve the cleanliness of London for those who live in, work in or visit the capital. Their first ever graffiti campaign will highlight that it is a criminal offence, the cost of removing unwanted graffiti and the negative impact it has on an area.
Cllr June Leitch, executive advisor for the public realm, said: "Graffiti is a crime that impacts on the perception of an area and makes people feel unsafe. It is great that Newham has a sound record for keeping graffiti out of the borough but it is important that we still remain vigilant in tackling graffiti and help to raise awareness of the issue."
"This is just one of the ways Public Realm is working with residents to help make the borough cleaner and safer".
Newham employs three deep cleansing teams that provide graffiti removal across the borough.
Since they started in January this year, one of the teams has carried out 700 graffiti removal tasks and continues to keep their target to remove offensive or racist graffiti in 24 hours.
As part of Graffiti Awareness Week, across London there will be local clean ups, the use of CCTV vans to spot vandalises, distribution of anti graffiti leaflets, poster competitions, school visits and authorities will be targeting graffiti hot spots.
To report graffiti or flyposting in the borough call 020 8430 2000.