Brighton and Hove is now the graffiti capital of Britain. That is no exaggeration.

Every town and city is blighted by ugly “tagging” but anyone who has travelled around the country knows that Brighton is far worse — it is now an epidemic here.

Nowhere is safe from it, from quiet back streets to leafy avenues. And as soon as a shop becomes vacant it also becomes a target, especially on our busiest shopping streets such as Western Road and London Road.

Within days of a shop becoming empty its windows are covered in ugly tagging.

But no one seems to see them doing it. Do they come out with their spray cans in

the middle of the night?

It was good to read in The Argus on Saturday the thoughts, and apology, of reformed tagger John Macmillan. But most are not reformed — they’re still very busy vandalising the city. It may be that many of the taggers feel ignored by society, that they have no voice. Tagging is their one way of establishing their identity and making themselves known. And that is truly sad.

But it is no excuse for vandalism. Has any tagger ever been charged, appeared in court and fined for their desecration of our otherwise beautiful city? And if so, have they had to pay compensation to any resident or business for the cost of removing the mess they have made?

For graffiti sprayed on to a shop window it may be a simple case of using a solvent to remove it. But what about graffiti sprayed on to a brick wall? How do you deal with that? Knock down the wall and build a new one?

If someone, or some organisation, offered a £50 reward to anyone supplying a name and address that led to a conviction, would that help solve the problem? Surely these taggers could be identified by someone. After all, they identify themselves with a sort of nickname that they then spray all over town.

George Holland Hill

Preston Road

Brighton