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Young criminals to clean graffiti
Offenders will be removing graffiti from 13 Wellingborough underpasses in the coming months.
A new initiative, called Operation Paignton, was launched yesterday by the police, Northamptonshire Probation Service and Wellingborough Council to tackle the unsightly crime in the town.
Wellingborough Sector Inspector Vaughan Clarke said resident surveys into anti-social behaviour had shown the most common complaint was graffiti.
He said: "I want this town to be a place where people are proud to live and where people are free, as far as they can be, from crime and anti-social behaviour.
"Graffiti is visible for a long time, unless we take action against it.
"There are 13 underpasses in the town, some of which are in a very poor state. We are committed to repaining all of the underpasses over the next few months using offenders serving community-service orders. We will be working with the probation service on the project."
Wellingborough Council is to pay for paint and equipment, the probation service will nominate offenders to paint the underpasses and the police will targe vandals to stop the problem.
In addition to targeting offenders, police officers will also be using their latest weapon to fight crime – mobile CCTV cameras which will be used in areas where graffiti is a roblem.
One of the most recent high-profile cases of graffiti was when the war memorial, in Broad Green, Wellingborough, was defaced with racist slurs in October last year.
Insp Clarke said: "It should be remembered that graffiti is an act of criminal damage and we will always look to prosecute where we can. So far we have arrested four offenders from the town, including the person who we believe attacked the war memorial in October.
"Two of these have been charged and one is on bail while we undertake further enquiries.
"We will take a zero-tolerance approach to this offence and I would encourage anyone who sees criminal damage being committed to dial 999 so we can respond immediately."
Neil Warren, 65, of Malham Close, Wellingborough, said: "It's really good to get the young people involved.
"If they clean it up they probably won't do it again.
"Graffiti is not very nice anywhere and it's good to see the town getting cleaned up a bit."
Anyone with information on this type of crime, or any other, is asked to telephone the police on 03000 111 222 or to ring Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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