Written by Claire Hu and published on the This Is Brighton and Hove site at http://www.thisisbrighton.co.uk/

Traders are being encouraged to clean up graffiti with the help of 'buster boxes' being sent to 154 shops. Graffiti costs hundreds of thousands of pounds and ruins the image of Brighton, according to the City Centre Business Forum. The kits contain everything needed to get rid of graffiti with the minimum effort. The graffiti buster boxes were paid for by the forum, the council and property agents Stiles Harold Williams. They contain four different types of chemical to tackle all types of spray paint and surfaces, goggles, gloves, cleaning materials and detailed instructions.

Tony Mernagh kits out Paul Fox from Tucan

The kits were designed by Aquarius Solutions in Peacehaven, which has offered to show storekeepers how to use them. The project was launched after research by the forum showed nine per cent of businesses in the city centre simply put up with graffiti. City centre manager Tony Mernagh said: "The graffiti buster kits are to encourage people who think it is too difficult to remove graffiti and help them take responsibility. "The vast majority of people do actually clean graffiti from their own premises. There are about ten per cent who would clean up but don't know how to. Then there are ten per cent saying they are prepared to live with it."

The council has a two-person graffiti cleaning team but Mr Mernagh said it was not big enough to cope with demand.