A council is spending £250,000 every year cleaning up graffiti.

Figures from Brighton and Hove City Council reveal the huge amount of taxpayers' money that is spent scrubbing spray paint off walls, fences and monuments.

The council recently announced new measures being introduced to combat graffiti.

These include creating physical barriers to areas which suffer graffiti, using mobile CCTV cameras to spy on environmental vandals and motion-sensitive lights which will illuminate people caught spraying certain walls.

City councillors, residents and traders are angry so much money has to be spent tackling the problem.

Gill Mitchell, who chairs the council's environment committee, said: "Graffiti is a form of vandalism and costs the taxpayer money to remove.

"The people who live in Brighton and Hove care about the city and they don't want to see graffiti daubed all over it.

"The council has recently successfully prosecuted two people for tagging.

"We're serious about stamping out graffiti and are taking new measures to help prevent it before it occurs in the first place."

Peter Stocker, secretary of the North Laine Traders' Association, said the problem had blighted small businesses for years. Mr Stocker said: "We would like to see the police get tougher about graffiti so the council doesn't have to spend such a lot of money cleaning it up.

"The police don't seem to see it as a very high priority.

"The problem is a lot of traders get so much graffiti that they don't bother reporting it any more."

Mr Stocker said if the plan to make parts of the city centre a Business Improvement District (BID) went ahead, it could lead to all shops in the area having graffiti cleaned off their walls regularly.

Councillor Averil Older said it was a disgrace that so much council money had to go on cleaning up tags.

She said: "Graffiti is absolutely terrible and is the main thing visitors complain about.

"All young offenders should be forced to clean graffiti up. It would send a clear message."

It has tended to be businesses that have been targeted by taggers but recently homes have been sprayed as well.

Three tags appeared in Kemp Street, Brighton, a few weeks ago.

Gabrielle Villermet, North Laine Community Association committee member, said: "The council has to spend this money because it needs doing.

"I wish everyone took enough pride in their buildings to clean graffiti off or paint over it."

David Samuel, who set up the Rarekind graffiti art gallery and clothing shop in North Street, Brighton, with the help of the Prince's Trust, said a confrontational attitude was no answer.

He said: "If the council really wants to solve this issue, it needs to communicate with the people doing the graffiti. We could work together to find a solution which would work.