PEOPLE in Bude are taking action against the graffiti and tagging in town, with various community groups and individuals getting to work to tackle the vandalism strewn across a number of both residential and commercial buildings.

The community efforts have flourished from an original idea from the manager of Greenaways Tyres, Tom Arscott, who was fed up of seeing his town painted in negative words and random scribbles.

He set up a Facebook group to get some local people together in an aim of getting rid of the graffiti as quickly as possible, as well as creating an accessible place for people to report graffiti, so that a volunteer could go along and clean it up.

Tom, who has worked at Greenaways Tyres for ten years, and who has lived in Bude with his wife and two young daughters since 2014, told the Post that he ‘loved the town and how clean and safe it was’.

He said: “As the graffiti started a few months ago, it got me angry that someone could be so disrespectful to our town. I was hoping that it would go away, but the tagging only got worse and worse. I started noticing that I was not the only one who was angry, and reading Bude Banter, more and more people were also feeling the same way I was.”

Tom took to Bude Banter, a community page on Facebook, asking if people were interested in joining him in cleaning the graffiti up. This received a large, positive response from local people.

Therefore, Tom created the Facebook page, ‘Clean Up Bude’s Graffiti — Sponsored by Greenaways Tyres’, not only to spread the message about taking action to remove the graffiti, but also creating a place where people could report it.

Since the group’s establishment on Saturday, March 18, Tom has taken it upon himself to purchase cans of solvent liquid buffer, which he claims ‘works quite well on graffiti’.

He has been encouraging local people to come to Greenaways Tyres to pick up a free can and get to work on ridding the town of the vandalism.

Tom said: “After doing some research on how to remove the paint, I realised that I use a buffer solvent at Greenaways Tyres, which works very well in removing spray paint and permanent marker, so I bought a case of it and offered it for free to anyone who wants to take action and clean up the graffiti themselves.

“My hope is that if we have enough dedicated people to remove the graffiti, then once somewhere has been painted, we can remove it quickly and then it will eventually stop.”

He added: “If anyone wants to come up to Greenaways Tyres at the top of Kings Hill, I will provide you with what you need to remove graffiti from our town.”

Tom and his group’s determination and community spirit has echoed similar feelings from others in Bude. Over recent weeks, more and more people are getting involved to do their bit to clean up the town.

On Saturday, March 25, volunteers from Bude Community Fire Station chipped in, taking time out of their busy day to help scrub off the paint and graffiti left around the town. Many local people caught a glimpse of them doing their bit, and they received high praise indeed for all their work.

A spokesperson for Bude Community Fire Station said: “As we are a community fire station, we wanted to get involved and help in any way we could. Within just a few hours on Saturday morning, we had achieved so much and cleaned up a lot of pen and paint from various private and public properties.

“It’s great to know that locals are backing the clean-up operation, and we would certainly like to thank Tom and everyone else who has been involved for their efforts. Of course, it goes without saying that if anyone has any information and sees anything suspicious, please contact Devon and Cornwall Police on 101.”

A number of young people have also been getting involved in the town’s big clean up, some of which have heralded from Integer training, based in Bude.

Integer Training is a course run for those aged 16 to 19, to help them get through education and preparing them for further careers and opportunities in life. On Monday, March 27, students from Integer Training got together to voluntarily clean some of the graffiti in Bude.

Another member of the course posted some photos and details of their day on Bude Banter, wanting to dash the idea that this vandalism is solely to do with young people.

He said: “These are the young generations, proving not all our bad behaved individuals decide to terrorise the Bude community. These young individuals are willing to volunteer to help with the community.”

PC Stephen South recently released a message to local people regarding the graffiti and tagging of properties in the area.

He recently told the Post that there has been a ‘substantial increase’ in graffiti around Bude since November 2016. The police’s response to this has been to send plain-clothed officers on patrol in the area, and they have also interviewed a number of young people in Bude that may be in connection with the offences.

Previously, PC South said: “I am asking the residents of Bude to report any suspicious activity, which they believe may be related to persons who are ‘tagging’ and blighting the town the majority of us respect as a place to both live and work.”

If anyone has any information or has seen suspicious activity in the area, they are encouraged to contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, Devon and Cornwall Police on 101, or local police on [email protected]

Launceston Police have also had some words of advice for people, and wrote on their Facebook page recently: “In regard to the graffiti in Bude — if you have information and would prefer to report anonymously, please call the independent charity 0800 555 111/ crimestoppers-uk.org. There may be a reward if you give details that lead to one or more people being arrested and charged.”

Bude’s graffiti-fighting group is now seeking donations from those in the community who are keen to help them clean up the town. With the cleaning products being funded by Tom and his army of volunteers, they are now asking for local people to donate what they can to help fund the costs of new cleaning equipment.

Bude Community Fire Station is backing this. A spokesperson for the team said: “It’s superb to see some of the locals joining in with this cleaning, but unfortunately the cleaning materials do cost money, and so far this has all been donated by Greenaways and a few others.

“It would be amazing if anyone who can spare a bit of time could help out, but for those who don’t have the time, and could perhaps donate a small amount of money to the community for cleaning products, there is a Just Giving page which has been set up, which can be found at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cleanupbude.”

For more information about the group, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cleanbudesgraffitigreenawaystyres