A ZERO tolerance' approach will be taken with graffiti in the borough, now that Richmond upon Thames Council are launching a new drive to join forces with the business community.

New powers under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act enable councils to serve graffiti removal notices on the owners of commercial property. If these are ignored, the council can step in to remove the offending scrawl and recoup the cost from the company.

The council hopes this will encourage business owners to join a council maintenance scheme which will regularly remove graffiti from properties joined up to the scheme in return for a small annual fee. There will be small regular payments but no hefty bills for erasing graffiti.

A new graffiti officer will shortly be appointed to co-ordinate the fight to keep the borough's streets clean and tidy. The council already provides a service for residential property and is committed to removing abusive or offensive graffiti from any property, domestic or commercial, within 24 hours.

Richmond council's cabinet member for planning and environment, Cllr David Marlow, said: "Graffiti vandalism disfigures our streets; it is environmental GBH. That is why improving the overall look of our borough is among the key aims of our Civic Pride initiative.

"If Civic Pride stands for one thing, above all else, it is the principle of the council and the community working together to make the borough a better place. And we are determined to be more proactive, particularly by persuading the business community of the need to deal with the problem quickly."

He added: "That is why we are launching a maintenance scheme through which we plan to regularly remove graffiti from the properties of businesses who join up."