UPDATE: Graffiti on Louth's Mercer Row and Eastgate cleaned up by Lincolnshire County Council

The graffiti taking aim at Louth’s controversial Active Travel Scheme on Mercer Row and Eastgate has been cleared up.
The graffiti has been removed.The graffiti has been removed.
The graffiti has been removed.

People living in the town centre woke up this morning to see various slogans aimed at the scheme sprayed on Mercer Row and Eastgate.

Some of the slogans spray-painted on the ground near to the controversial parklets – which have been targeted by three vandalism attacks in recent weeks – included “C III would hate these”, “We are Louth”, and “£5,000 a seat” and “£62,000” – apparent nods to the cost of the parklets.

A response team from Lincolnshire County Council was sent to the site to jetwash away the graffiti used to deface the area, and by 3pm today, the graffiti had been blasted off the road.

Coun Richard Davies, executive member for highways, criticised the defacing of the road this morning as a “terrible way to behave” and that the graffiti has “drawn the reputation of Louth publicly downwards”

He has thanked the council’s response team for their swift actions:

“A big thank you to our response team who acted so swiftly to rid Mercer Row of this latest example of vandalism.

“Our crew has worked hard to give the people of Louth some sort of normality on this street after a minority chose to deface the market town last night.

“It is worth reiterating that, as the local authority, we will not tolerate this sort of vandalism on public property and have reported this action by those responsible to the police.

“This, and other recent episodes of vandalism around the Active Travel scheme have, sadly, moved attention away from the benefits and wider discussion around a sustainable future for pedestrians and businesses in Louth.

“What will be taken away from this by the majority of the public is that vandals in Louth will use violent and aggressive means to try to take away something that was being used by a lot of the local public and visitors. And all because they didn’t agree with aspects of the scheme which was being trialled on a temporary basis.”

The Active Travel Scheme has been the target of three vandalism attacks in recent weeks.