Felixstowe: Police to make vandals clean up after resort hit by graffiti

Five bus shelters in Howlett Way, Trimley St Martin, and High Road, Trimley St Mary, have been attacked, the back of shops in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, have been drawn on with tags, pictures and various designs, and the Palace cinema and street signs have been daubed with graffiti.

Some of it – now cleaned up – was obscene.

Police are now working with school teachers to try to spot the tell-tale “tags” – the artists’ graffiti signatures – to identify them so they can be dealt with and made to get rid of the mess.

The worst examples are the complete defacing of a give way sign at Tomline Road, where it has been covered with an evil mask, and the top of the Marks and Spencer shop, where someone has climbed on the roof to make a huge tag of the name “Zute”.

Zute also appears on other buildings around the area.

Police community support officer Glynn Bown said officers were concerned at the problems and were working with Suffolk Coastal District Council’s anti-social behaviour officers on the matter and equipment had been ordered for youngsters who had been in trouble to clean up the graffiti.

“There is a growing trend for this graffiti across the Felixstowe area at the moment,” he said.

“We are working with the schools to identify the offenders by their tags with teachers keeping a close eye on youngsters’ school books and work and other projects to see if any of the tags appear.

“In these circumstances, we use youth offenders to clean up graffiti which is around the area.”

Mary Dixon, chairman of Trimley St Mary Parish Council, said the graffiti in the village was “awful”.

“It looks very unsightly and it is important that we get it cleaned up as soon as possible, as otherwise it will attract more graffiti,” she said.

? What do you think of the graffiti? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN, or alternatively you can e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk