New laws will ban the sale of spray paints to under-16s

Wansbeck District Council is piloting new powers as part of a major drive by the Home Office to crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

Neighbourhood wardens will be equipped with free anti-graffiti toolkits.

They will be able to clean areas up and charge back the cost to the owner if it has not been removed within a timescale set by the council.

The council's new powers are in addition to new laws which come into force on Wednesday across the country that ban the sale of spray paints to under-16s and allow penalty notices to be issued for graffiti and fly-posting.

'Important priority'

Home Office minister Hazel Blears said: "Graffiti is criminal damage, a crime that costs the taxpayer hundreds of millions a year to clean up as well as creating an environment where people feel threatened and fear of crime increases.

"Measures such as penalty notices and piloting new powers for councils to tackle graffiti more easily send out a strong message that this kind of anti-social behaviour will be tackled not tolerated."

Wansbeck has been chosen to be part of Operation 'Scub-It' , part of the Government's Together campaign, which is aimed at giving councils, police, housing and environmental officers the tools they need to deal with anti-social behaviour.

Wansbeck District Council deputy leader Councillor David Nicholson said: "Making the streets of Wansbeck cleaner, greener and safer for the people of our district, is an important priority for the council and our partners who are working with us to improve the urban environment for our communities. "