Colchester graffiti vandal spray paints roads in Berechurch

It has been claimed the vandals have sprayed the tag on in as many as 50 places across Berechurch. 

County and Borough councillor for Berechurch, Dave Harris, has hit out at a vandal in his constituency. 

Mr Harris claims the person has "marked every bit of street furniture" from green BT Boxes, to road signs, to lamp posts, with the same red spray paint tag.

Disappointing - Most of the street furniture in the Berechurch ward has been spray painted. (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Harris estimates there are 40 to 50 of the tags spanning a large area, from Blackheath Drive, Gosfield Road, parts of Monkwick, Mersea Road and the Willows.

He said: “To be honest, the street zone workers are busy enough with bin collecting, dog poo and litter picking, without doing needless issues like this.

“It is so frustrating as a councillor for someone to commit such a needless act of vandalism, wasting taxpayer's money.

“If it was lovely art I would find some assets for them to, do I’ve had a few murals done with local artists, such as the one in Old Heath, they usually work well and add a lot of character to the area."

Vandalism - Councillor Harris hopes that someone will be able to identify the vandal (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Harris has asked anyone who can identify them to come forward. 

He added: “I am hoping that people will have doorbell footage, or have witnessed the person with a red spray can, so we can identify them.

“This poses a huge detriment to the local area, I’ve always encouraged people to take pride in their local area but this is the absolute opposite.”

Graffiti can be reported to Colchester Council which carried out regular cleaning of it across the city. 

Reports can be made at www.colchester.gov.uk/StreetCleaningRequest/. 

Removal can inlcude chemical removal, hot wash and in some cases patch painting in a reasonably similar shade to the surrounding area.