Penis graffiti 'not being removed quickly enough'

Gloucester City Council has allocated £20,000 to remove graffiti, but much remains in the city including these tags in Northgate Street

A council's response to graffiti has been criticised after more than a dozen penis images were counted on its buildings.

Gloucester City Council set up a unit to deal with graffiti in the city earlier this year and allocated £20,000 to tackle the issue.

But opposition councillors claim the service is not good enough, with councillor Alistair Chambers describing it as "appalling and rubbish".

The council said it aimed to remove graffiti within two working days of it being reported. It added environmental company Ubico had removed 51 pieces of graffiti from council-owned buildings so far this year.

Mr Chambers, who is the leader of the Community Independents group, said he counted 13 penises painted on council buildings alongside other swear words.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, he said: "Unfortunately, the service so far has been nothing short of appalling and rubbish as far as I can see.

"How are you going to manage washing off the penises from the walls?"

Multiple pieces of graffiti remain in Eastgate Shopping Centre car park, which is owned by the council

Councillor Sebastian Field, cabinet member for environment, said he did not agree with Mr Chambers' characterisation of the service.

"I think it's very impressive what we've done so far," he said.

However, photographs taken on Monday show graffiti remains a problem on council-owned buildings – including Eastgate Shopping Centre car park, where tags and names have been written on walls and pillars.

Mr Field said the council acts very quickly when there is graffiti on council-owned buildings.

"It's an issue we take extremely seriously," he added. "If there is offensive graffiti on the council buildings, we want to know about it."