Graffiti is dealt with by Engineering Services in conjunction with the Community Safety Partnership.

The Council’s powers to deal with graffiti (defacement) are contained in Sections 48 to 52 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and Section 31 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. To require removal under the Act, the defacement must be offensive or detrimental and this is defined as follows:

Offensive: graffiti which is racially offensive and/or hostile to a religious group, sexually offensive, homophobic, depicts a sexual or violent act or is defamatory.

Detrimental: having a significant effect on the amenity of an area. A proportionate view is required here and relevant factors include: the nature and extent of the surface area affected by the defacement, how visible it is, the level of complaints it generates and the degree of any general defacement or anti social behaviour problem in the area.

Where defacement that is deemed to be offensive or detrimental as described above occurs on private property the Council may arrange for it to be removed subject to the agreement of the owner of the property and subject to suitable access being available. The owner will be approached to contribute towards the cost of the work, however if this is unable to be obtained then the Council will cover the cost. The Council may also remove defacement where the ownership of the affected surface cannot be ascertained. These provisions do not apply to property belonging to a corporate or other responsible organisation e.g. a Housing Association, Parish Council, Utility Company etc.

Defacement of the Council’s own property (including public buildings, car parks, street lights, street nameplates etc) is dealt with as a maintenance issue.

Response Times

Our target response times for dealing with defacement are:

• Racially offensive graffiti on Council property: 24 hours
• Offensive graffiti: 5 working days
• Detrimental graffiti: 20 working days (subject to co-operation from the land owner)

Links

Online Request Form

Graffiti Enquiries

Telephone: (01902) 696543
Email: engineers@sstaffs.gov.uk