Over the past few months, the Guardian has been flooded with letters from the borough's residents complaining of a common problem the scourge of graffiti. This week, in our series of features investigating something which has sparked so much debate in Sutton, reporter DEAN PIPER speaks to a key figure in the fight against vandalism.

With a title longer than most people's home address, Gordon Falconer is Sutton's voluntary sector and community safety manager.

Gordon is an integral part of a group which is working to reduce crime and disorder within Sutton, so tackling the problem of vandals' graffiti is a large part of his concern.

As an important component to his job, Gordon sits on a crime and disorder committee which is currently putting together a strategy for the next three years, due to be released in April.

"The strategy committee is a partnership between lots of local groups including the police force, the council and residents' associations," Gordon explains.

"What we aim to do is say that over the coming three years, we want to reduce the graffiti by a certain percentage. We want residents to feel safer in their area."

He is open to all suggestions of how graffiti can be tackled within the borough. "If art classes that featured graffiti were taught in a way that told children it was wrong, or gave them the opportunity to practice it in one area only, then it might work.

"The problem with graffiti overall is that it's seen as destructive amongst the people in the community. People might not like the idea that we are encouraging graffiti in Sutton."

Gordon explains how the negative perception of graffiti within Sutton makes it almost impossible to launch a scheme to educate children. "We have had strong comments from people who just say graffiti is bad there is a lot of anger out there in the community.

"At the meetings I have attended, people clearly do not want to talk about the artistic content that graffiti may or may not hold."

But illegal graffiti is a problem which seems to be costing the borough's residents more and more. The Sutton community wants results and it wants them quickly.

If property is vandalised, the council is more often than not held responsible for cleaning it. If no immediate action is taken, the council will be inundated with complaints.

The reasons for this are obvious. Graffiti looks unsightly, it can damage an area's credibility, ruin the value of property or cause hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

And at the end of the day, it is always down to a select group of individuals to clean up the mess.

Dennis Paul is the man in charge of the cleaners who attempt to scrub graffiti off property every day. As Sutton Council's external services manager, he manages a team of caretakers who attempt to rid the borough of graffiti tags' or signatures.

Dennis explains: "To clean just one metre of graffiti on a block, the current cleaning contractors charge us a call out charge of about £120.

"From April, Sutton will have two full time caretakers to look after graffiti removal across the borough and this should save the council money."

The current budget for the removal of graffiti in Sutton is £80,000. Last year, the total spent on cleaning up the borough's estates alone was £35,000. So far in 2001 the council has used just under £20,000 of this budget.

If this sounds a lot, compare Sutton to other London boroughs. Lambeth spends up to £30,000 a year on cleaning up graffiti on just one estate.

Dennis and his team try to save money within the budget by waiting until graffiti builds up in certain areas. "It's not worth us being charged £120 call out fee if we have only got a small piece of graffiti. By waiting for a build up of graffiti, we are saving some money.

"We must not forget that it's a minority of people who are making it hard for others by vandalising Sutton."

As far as preventing the spread of graffiti goes, it has proved difficult to establish how this can realistically be achieved.

Gordon Falconer is hoping that the crime and disorder strategy will hold the key to how the borough can overcome its main graffiti problems.

Dennis was more concerned with the on-the-ground defences. "CCTV cameras were suggested for areas which have graffiti problems.

"We started to look into lighting on the estates and lighting in alley ways and if we did put up cameras, it will only work if the lighting is good."

Dennis thinks one idea to combat the problem is to plant scrubs against all walls where graffiti is a major problem. "If kids can't physically reach the walls, then they will not vandalise," he says.

Meeting the man who organises the show behind the scenes and the man who organises the show on the front line highlights how their jobs truly differ. One is concerned very much with future strategies, the other is concerned with present day-to-day tasks.

The interesting point is that after week two of our investigation, all the people I have spoken to have come up with different responses to the same problem. But if combating graffiti in Sutton ever succeeds, it is clear everyone will have to work together to reach an effective solution.

Next week we will be interviewing one of Sutton's police chiefs, who deals with crime figures in the borough and who works as part of a team with Sutton Council to combat graffiti. We will also be finding out what one local resident hates so much about graffiti, and what action she wants taken.

December 20, 2001 11:00