STOWUPLAND/ TRIMLEY: Police are today hunting a spray-painting vandal who has left householders, a care home and a school with clean-up bills.

Rows of terraced houses in Reeds Way and Barley Close in Stowupland, near Stowmarket, were targeted with lines of blue and green paint.

Paint was also sprayed on Freeman Primary School in Church Road, a residential home in Reeds Way and on other walls and trees in the area.

Police say the graffiti attack took place overnight on New Year’s Eve and are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

It comes as villagers in Trimley also face the task of clearing up a second spate of graffiti which saw more tags and slogans daubed on signs and bus shelters.

Parish councillors, husband and wife Colin and Ann Jacobs, are cleaning all paint off – and hope it will deter the vandals from doing it again.

“One sign was completely obliterated and others have been given a covering of spray paint,” said Mr Jacobs.

“We are able to clean up the signs and glass, but wood will have to be creosoted over when the weather improves.”

He said both the underpasses in the village had also been plastered with fresh graffiti as well as the underside of the Victorian railway arch at the back of homes in Chatsworth Crescent.

“We hope that by getting on with the clean-up quickly, it will deter them from doing it again,” said Mrs Jacobs, parish council vice-chairman. Before Christmas, five bus shelters in Howlett Way, Trimley St Martin, and High Road, Trimley St Mary, were attacked, several daubed with the tag Zute.

There was then a fresh spate on New Year’s Eve.

Parish council chairman Mary Dixon said: “It makes me angry – it’s such a mindless thing to do, so destructive. The police told us they would track down the youngsters who did this and make them clean it up, but in the meantime it happens again.”

Police community support officers are working with Suffolk Coastal District Council’s anti-social behaviour officers on the issue, and liaising with teachers to see if they notice the graffiti tags in use around schools.

Calls about the Stowupland graffiti should go to Sgt Neil Paterson at Stowmarket Safer Neighbourhood Team on 01473 613500 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

n What can be done to tackle graffiti? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN, or alternatively you can e-mail eveningstarletters@evening star.co.uk