Shopkeepers have armed themselves with brooms and brushes to declare war on graffiti vandals.

Traders in St George's Road, Brighton, have been scrubbing pavements and walls to clean up their area.

Roland Wallis, chairman of Kemp Town Village Business Association, urged people not to expect council cleaners to mop up after them.

He said: "There is an attitude that the council will do everything. But it's up to shoppers not to drop rubbish and us traders to do our bit."

The group has been repainting walls and sweeping the floor around their shops and up and down the street.

Mr Wallis described graffiti as the most serious blight in the area.

He said: "It's not even proper graffiti. But if the vandals doing it realise their tagging will be gone quickly then hopefully they will lose the impulse.

"They seem to have an animal mentality, like a dog cocking its leg against a lamp-post. But if we keep cleaning they will stop."

Many shopkeepers in the road have asked about putting up hanging baskets as part of the Brighton in Bloom project.

Mr Wallis, co-owner of Macfarlane Wallis gift shop, said: "We really think this is the best way to stop crime - to make people feel proud of their area.

"In countries like France and Germany people seem to take more care of their streets. I've got a horrible feeling many people don't notice the rubbish anymore."

The clean-up work is the latest bid to present a tidier and safer image of St James's Street, St George's Road and the rest of Kemp Town, an area which has suffered a reputation as a crime hot spot in the past.

The Argus reported last week how traders in St James's Street have pledged to act as guardian angels to the victims of street crime under a plan to turn their shops into safe refuges.