TEAMS of workers have been scrubbing unsightly graffiti from buildings as part of a planned long-term strategy to make Worcester one of the cleanest cities in the country.

The Duckworth Worcestershire Trust and Worcester City Council have joined forces with the goal of turning Worcester in to one of the 10 cleanest cities in Britain by 2007 and eventually the cleanest city by 2011.

Representative of the trust as well as city and county councils are due to meet next Wednesday to further discuss the strategy, which is due to be drawn up in the next few months.

Trust project manager Mark Driscoll said: "We targeted a number of sites in and around the city centre.

"Although incidents of graffiti have fallen, 'taggers' continue to vandalise walkways and areas not covered by CCTV cameras.

"One of the problems we had is that some graffiti is done on private property and we have to get permission from the property owners to remove it.

"Bizarrely some property owners did not want us to touch it.

"Graffiti is an act of vandalism that causes lots of distress to the property owners and costs us and the city council a lot of money. Our philosophy is to remove it as quickly as we can."

Over the last couple of weeks, 14 different sites have been cleaned using pressure washers and a variety of chemical cleaners.

For the next few days the team will be concentrating on Cheshire Cheese Entry, an alleyway which runs along the side of the Odeon Cinema, off Foregate Street.

Anyone wishing to report graffiti should contact the customer services centre of Worcester City Council on 01905 722233.

Any property owners who would like a graffiti leaflet offering advice on how to clean off property should ring 01905 23267.