Councillors speak out as graffiti continues to plague Bognor Regis town centre

They say the graffiti, which has appeared outside empty and operating storefronts, tourist hotspots, and sites along the seafront and soon-to-be refurbished Alexandria Theatre, is costly to remove, takes up valuable police and town force time, and makes Bognor Regis less attractive to visitors, which is especially problematic as the town tries to revitalise itself.

"It’s just getting worse all the time. It's everywhere,” said Bognor Regis Town Councillor Phil Woodall. “The Town Force can’t keep up with it. They’re the guys who clean it off and there are other things they need to be doing. It’s also costing a fortune in council tax payer’s money. For me, that’s the biggest issue.”

He made clear that all the time, and all the equipment, dedicated to removing the graffiti is paid for by tax-payers, who could be getting better value for their money.

“When Town Force cleans a wall, they take a picture before and they take a picture after. So there are all these photos at the town hall of graffitied walls, and you can see the same tags popping up over and over again. They also measure the time and cost of each job. And this one tag cost, over a period of time, about £11,000 to remove."

His feelings were echoed by another town councillor. Claire Needs, who said “something needs to be done to stop (graffiti) happening in the first place.

"I know it isn’t an easy thing to stop, but there really does need to be some kind of deterrent put in place to stop youngsters thinking it is okay to ruin the look of towns by spraying needlessly on things."

Over recent months, Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne has made clear that work is being done to keep graffiti – and anti-social behaviour at large – under control in the town. In July, she visited Bognor Regis to asses the impact of Safer Streets 4 Funding on the community, which initially paid for a seven-days-a-week community warden in the town until the end of August, although the scheme will now be funded by the town council until March next year.

The community warden has built up strong relationships with local businesses and often acts as a deterrent to would-be vandals, having caught one prolific graffiti artist red-handed, leading to their arrest.

"I have been reassured that both the Force and the Community Warden are making strong strides in tackling ASB, providing a visible presence throughout the town and seeing numbers of reports fall,” she said.

Even so, plenty of residents feel more needs to be done. Town councillor, and owner of Unique Knit and Sew Paul Wells, said: “We’ve suffered as a business in the town. And I just think it drags the town down. We’ve had real, decent artists come into town to do decent stuff, but I think a lot of this is just pure rubbish, and pure vandalism, really.”