Graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is any illegal marking to walls and other surfaces. It covers a wide variety of forms including ‘masterpieces’, ‘tags’, juvenile scribbles, scratchings and etchings. Although there are many types of graffiti, by far the most prevalent throughout England are juvenile scribbles which are responsible for most of the graffiti on our streets. This type of graffiti can often be racist and offensive in nature.  

For all you need to know about graffiti - including facts and figures, tips for campaigning in your local area and case studies from councils that are seeing success - click here to view our Graffiti Knowledge Bank.

What can I do about graffiti?

If you want to report graffiti in your local area you should firstly contact your local council and tell them about the problem. Your council, or its contractor, will usually remove graffiti from public buildings or monuments. In some cases it may also be able to help you with graffiti on private buildings.

Many groups involved in the Big Tidy Up www.thebigtidyup.org extend the event to more than litter picking. Often groups use a Big Tidy Up litter pick as a starting point to renovate an area such as a local park or community centre. This will often involve graffiti removal. Keep Britain Tidy run graffiti removal training courses for both councils and local communities. These courses can provide equipment, detailed information and practical tips on graffiti removal. 

If you find graffiti unacceptable and think it is a blight on your local area why not become a Keep Britain Tidy supporter and we will keep you updated on everything we are doing to tackle the problem of graffiti and other environmental issues damaging our local communities.

Comments

Comment on this article

• sean, West Midlands

  what about if someone painted mona lisa on a wall would it be vandalism/graffiti ? im a graffiti artist and before you say it can be racist and that what about when it protesting, or when they just show there feelings about the government or peace and war, most graffiti now is to try and get words around to people

• Liam, West Midlands

  graffiti is art, not a crime. if people want to express themselves through their art, let them show the world what they can do. Atleast make designated graffiti areas, not too much to ask, but look at some of the artists from Leicester, Straid, Decay, Bask, Eazr and many more, they are not the ones to scribble their name on a wall, they show effort into what they do. a Bask and Decay peice was recently painted over in my area (on Soar Valley Way) and the day i went to take some pictures, the peices were painted over, i was furious, and im sure Bask and Decay are too. I hope they do more work over your paint :(

• Bonnie, East Midlands

  I agree that SOME scrawlings that can be found on walls and in public places may look scruffy, however, I find that huge billboards with peeling, decaying and scruffy advertisement can make a town or city look just as bad. Offensive grafitti can be upsetting, but what about the media shoving the ideals of how they want our society to appear (i.e cosmetics, branded clothing) offends me just as much. It surprises me that the war against 'art and crime' has failed to address the issue of advertisement which is a main influence in our society, our children and young people see it every single day. Yes grafitti is an issue, but i believe that huge advertising billboards are as much as an issue, if not more, as they have slipped through the net.