GRAFFITI-busters armed with the latest cleaning sprays will be making sure Newport vandals don't leave their mark.

The council has created a 'rapid response' team to deal with the problem of spray paint and marker pen on its property.

Schools, street furniture, underpasses, sports halls and even the civic centre have been targets for youths leaving abusive messages or 'name tags'.

Two council cleansing workers will now be dedicating more of their time to tackling vandalism.

Council environment manager Malcolm Lane said: "Newport doesn't suffer that badly compared to other cities, but no graffiti is acceptable.

"Kids will cover stonework or seats in the city centre with marker pen. It's unfortunate and often abusive.

"For a long time we've been removing graffiti with solvents and chemicals that aren't that effective.

"The breakthrough came this year when a new, environmentally safe product was released, which does a much better job. We decided to set up a specialist team to tackle graffiti on all council property.

"Education and leisure departments used to have their own way of dealing with this, but with the new cleaners they can call on us to sort it out.

"We hope that if we deal with it quickly it will discourage people from making graffiti."

The council has also decided to scrap trying to strip graffiti off large areas, such as concrete walls.

Instead it has bought special concrete-coloured paint to cover the marks up. Ernie Watkins, a Rogerstone resident of Cefn Road and governor at Rogerstone Primary and Bassaleg School, said: "It's useful to have this service for schools but I haven't seen much recently. The real problem is on the streets. The underpass on Chartist Way is terrible."

You can report graffiti on council-owned property by calling the city contact centre on 01633 656 656.