Vandals targeting Sidmouth will be ‘brought to book’ after a mile stretch of graffiti has left residents feeling ‘frustrated’ and ‘annoyed’.

Sidmouth Herald: Shots of the vandalism along Manstone Lane captured by resident Emma Donovan.Shots of the vandalism along Manstone Lane captured by resident Emma Donovan. (Image: Archant)

Sidmouth neighbourhood police team said the culprits of Tuesday’s spree could face court after spraying garden walls, fences and posts in Tyrell Mead, Manstone Lane, Sidford Road, Primley Road through Fortescue Road and towards The Byes.

Councillor Stuart Hughes slammed the recent vandalism as ‘ridiculous’ and said he wanted to ‘nip it in the bud’ by offering to spend money on a graffiti remover in his fight to ‘remove’ offenders from the town.

He said: “These people need to be brought to book. Let’s get something done about this. It’s about time we fight back. We need the people to be the eyes and ears of the police.”

Sergeant Andy Squire agreed that local authorities removing the graffiti quickly often led to the culprit becoming bored.

He said: “Graffiti is a pet peeve of mine. It takes seconds to do it, but takes hours to clean it up.”

The sergeant said he would uses his powers to take the vandals to court due to the amount of damage caused.

He said: “We will hunt them down and we will find out who is responsible.

“We will catch them and we will put them in court.”

Primley Road resident Cara Monaghan called it ‘mindless vandalism’ after she discovered her garden fence had been sprayed with ‘tags’ - vandals’ identification markings.

The mother-of-two said: “Hopefully, police will catch them - then the culprits can come down and clean it.”

Sidmouth neighbourhood police team is asking residents to come forward and assist them with inquiries.

PC Steve Lee said: “At these times of austerity, neither the council nor the police needs to be wasting money dealing with this. They are going to go to court or clean it up.”

If you can help, call the police on 101 and quote crime reference 018508/16 for the incident in Fortescue Road to The Byes. For the Primley Road vandalism quote 018561/16.