EIGHTEEN taggers have been arrested since the start of the Adver's Grass Up Graffiti campaign. Swindon Council says it is delighted with the figure but they say the war on graffiti is far from over.

And the police have warned those who continue to cause thousands of pounds worth of damage will go to prison.

Earlier this year police in Lyneham forced youngsters to clean up the mess they had made at St Michael and All Angels Church Hall.

The old fashioned police action was applauded by the public.

An Adver poll, which saw hundreds of people vote, showed 95 per cent of readers thought getting graffiti artists to clear off their work was the best punishment. And members of the public approached by the Adver said that is how they would like to see the 18 dealt with.

Fourteen of those caught so far were blighting the town centre, making it look run down and increasing the fear of crime.

Town centre community beat manager Andy Alexander said: "The capture of 14 graffiti artists in the town centre recently shows that the information we are receiving is good. We have already noticed a decrease in the amount of tags reappearing after they have been cleaned and we will continue to investigate all graffiti with a view to prosecuting everybody caught.

"Fourteen caught is excellent. We had been catching the odd one or two but it was hit and miss. The information we have received from the Adver's hotline has enabled us to get warrants and get evidence and this has helped."

The damage some of the taggers are responsible for is costing thousands of pounds to repair.

"It had got really stupid," PC Alexander said.

"People will go to prison for it if they keep doing it. The more prolific will go to prison.

"We are catching them but there's still a lot out there and not just in the town centre but all over the place."

Cabinet member for community and neighbourhood Coun Colin Lovell urged people to keep providing information on who is behind graffiti.

He said: "It's going very well. We have a robust and effective partnership between the council, the police and the retailers.

"We applaud the efforts of this partnership. We are happy that it has led to a number of arrests but we still need help from the community to inform us of any individuals who are committing this crime."

Coun Lovell (Con Moredon) also said he would back the idea to get the taggers to remove the graffiti.

"I would like to think that the punishments they get will be quite severe," he said.

"Personally I do think that it would be a good idea that they cleaned off their mess but I will leave it to the court to decide what to do."

l Plain-clothed police officers arrested four suspected graffiti artists in the Wyvern Theatre car park on Thursday night.

Three girls, aged 16, 18 and 19 and a 20-year-old man were questioned at Gablecross police station and a decision on whether they are cautioned or charged is due to be made.

PC Alexander said: "We have plain-clothed officers patrolling to target the graffiti artists and this shows the people doing it are going to get caught like this because they never know if it is a police officer walking about."