LIKE any town, Great Yarmouth suffers from the blight of graffiti, but this week a teenage would-be politician launched a campaign to wipe it out.Nineteen-year-old Tom Garrod, a student at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, is standing for the Norfolk County Council seat in Central and North Yarmouth Division, as the Tory candidate.

LIKE any town, Great Yarmouth suffers from the blight of graffiti, but this week a teenage would-be politician launched a campaign to wipe it out.

Nineteen-year-old Tom Garrod, a student at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, is standing for the Norfolk County Council seat in Central and North Yarmouth Division, as the Tory candidate.

Tom said: “We all live in Great Yarmouth and we all care how it is perceived by visitors and residents alike; as a holiday destination I believe that it's important that people take a good impression of the area away with them.”

The borough council has a team of environmental rangers who work hard to clean up graffiti. However, this system relies on members of the public informing the council of problem areas.

Tom's crusade against the blight has two stages: a precise survey of the area, highlighting graffiti hotspots, followed by a leaflet providing information on how the public can help by keeping the council informed as soon as it happens.

Tom added: “We have a great team of environmental rangers but if we all work together and keep them informed of graffiti, then they can spend more of their time cleaning up graffiti rather than driving around looking for it.

“Part of what I wanted to achieve in standing for the county council was to highlight that not all teenagers and young people are troublemakers. The issue of graffiti is a great example; graffiti is caused by a few bad apples and not the majority of law-abiding youngsters.”

He said: “Unfortunately, we will never eradicate graffiti from our area, but if we can get into a situation where it is cleaned up within 24 hours of it being caused, eventually the vandals may not bother.”