Suffolk Police investigate repeated graffiti tag that has been appearing in Bury St Edmunds

A business group has spent about £1,500 in a fortnight on cleaning up graffiti in Bury St Edmunds’ historic town centre.

Mark Cordell, chief executive of the Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District (BID), said there had been repetitive graffiti tags sprayed on business premises, doors of residential accommodation and on street furniture in the town centre in the last few weeks.

This has been happening predominantly in Lower Baxter Street and High Baxter Street, but includes other locations around the town centre.

The BID’s graffiti removal operative has been out three times in a fortnight to remove it, at a cost to the BID of about £1,500, said Mr Cordell last week.

He said one logo, ‘DOPE’, had been removed around 10 times, on those three separate occasions.

A spokesman for Suffolk Police said the Community Policing Team (CPT) was investigating a series of found graffiti tags with the word ‘DOPE’ in Lower Baxter Street, Angel Lane and Nowton Road and was working with the BID who was supporting with enquiries.

Mr Cordell said: “The reason we do it [remove the graffiti] is because we want the town centre to look nice. We are concerned about the repetitive nature of this problem and we are working with the police to try and identify perpetrators.”

He added: “We work hard on encouraging people to come here and we want people to feel safe and have a lovely environment. And it’s costing our businesses over £1,500.”

To put that figure in context, he said the BID would normally spend £2,000 a year on graffiti removal.

Mr Cordell added: “We are lucky that Tim Rowlinson, owner of Rowlinsons in Haverhill, is so available and good to remove it all so promptly.

“I want this to stop but also for the ‘DOPE’ person to be identified and compensate the BID for over £1,500 that we have spent removing their handiwork.”

Cllr Cliff Waterman raised the issue of graffiti in the town at last week’s town council meeting, saying it was the ‘thin end of the wedge’.

Cllr Waterman told the Bury Free Press: “My concern has been because if you don’t deal with it, it just increases and creates that sense of street chaos which we don’t want.”

As well as the tags, some of the graffiti was quite obscene, he told the town council meeting.

There has been graffiti of an obscene nature by the former Cornhill Walk shopping centre.

A West Suffolk Council spokesman said: “The graffiti at Cornhill Walk has been reported to the developer to arrange clearance so this is pending. It is of an offensive nature, but the first step is to highlight the issue to them to action.”

The West Suffolk Council website said the only graffiti the council is responsible for clearing is on its own property, however if the graffiti is offensive, the council will work with the owners to remove it as quickly as possible.

♦ If anyone has any information, police said to contact the Bury CPT, quoting reference number: 37/16875/25.