Highly offensive graffiti in bright yellow paint has appeared on walls across an area of Colchester.

The graffiti starts at Goring Road, and goes right across the St Anne's estate and Greenstead estate as far as Avon Way.

And because of its nature, Colchester Council took the step of telling its contractors to remove the lettering from all buildings on the estate irrespective of whether they are council-owned or not.

The graffiti is believed to have appeared overnight last Tuesday and the council had hoped it would have been erased by Saturday.

Peter Jefferson, the council's head of housing area management, said: "We asked for the work to be done and had hoped the graffiti would be gone by Saturday.

"We removed quite a lot last Thursday. It was difficult to remove the paint, and it did use up all the contractors' supply of cleaning material.

"Overnight the graffiti appeared again and we are now starting again and trying something different."

The yellow painted words at Hawthorn Avenue at the end of Buckingham Drive have now been blacked out, but the two to three foot high letters on the side of the Co-op at the Centre also prompted the person to whom the comments were allegedly directed to complain to the supermarket.

A spokesperson for the shop said: "The graffiti will be cleared today or tomorrow. There is a lot on the estate and it is quite offensive. The gentleman who says it refers to him has come in and complained," he said.

Complaints have also been made to Colchester Council's housing office at Greenstead - similar wordings again in yellow paint have been found in Alefounder Close.

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