Graffiti News

Two councillors in Scartho, North East Lincolnshire, have been cleaning graffiti off telecom cabinets on their own streets. According to the Grimsby Telegraph, reporting on 30 July 2026, Cllr John Mills and Cllr Tony Charlesworth did the work themselves across their respective wards.

How it happened

According to the Grimsby Telegraph, Cllr Mills has worked in the telecommunications and utilities industry for around 26 years and used contacts built up over that time to approach Grain Communications. The company offered specialist graffiti-removal spray, and the supplies were delivered to his doorstep within 36 hours. The two councillors took a bottle each and started on the street cabinets.

Cllr Mills then asked residents across his ward to report other locations, and said people have been sending them through, which he works his way past when he can. Cllr Charlesworth called his colleague the superhero from Yarborough Ward for tracking down the spray.

What the two councillors said

Cllr Mills told the Grimsby Telegraph there is a lot of truth in the idea that when an area looks cared for, people feel better about where they live, and that tidying streets and removing graffiti helps create a cleaner and more welcoming environment. He said he became a councillor to make a positive difference for residents and that sometimes this starts with simple actions that have a visible impact.

Both said the work was not about politics or scoring points but about taking pride in the local community. Cllr Charlesworth, who is a military veteran, described it as another busy morning trying to improve the environment in Scartho Village for residents and visitors. Of the green telecom boxes that line the streets, he said they are unsightly, and that they are also definitely vital to our way of life.

Why street cabinets are always the target

Street cabinets are among the most painted objects in any town, and the reasons are mostly physical. They are flat, at eye level, standing directly beside the pavement, and small enough that one person finishes in seconds. The owner does not live there. Unlike a house wall, nobody is watching from a window, so the work stays up longer.

For the same reason, the cabinet is the surface where the argument shows most clearly. To one person it is scrawl that has to go; to another it is one of the few blank surfaces a town leaves out in the open. What was removed in Scartho was tagging, and the two councillors were clear about their reasoning. This piece does not judge whether they were right. It is worth recording, though, that decisions like this are usually made not in a bylaw or a budget meeting but in the hands of whoever picks up the bottle of remover.

What survives the cleaning

There is now almost no way to check what the graffiti in Scartho actually was. Most street work disappears that way. Without a photograph, within a few months nobody can say what stood in a given spot.

The Wallscape map keeps work that was uploaded with its location, so what was where survives the repaint of a wall or a cabinet. The feed shows what is going up in cities right now.

Source: Grimsby Telegraph, 30 July 2026.