Paint The Town Red. And Blue. And Green.

Cripes! The Ile de Thanet is well and truly in the news today, with eight graffiti artists arrested in dawn raids this morning by 40 0f our local boys in blue! The daubists, aged between 14 and 19, were woken up at dawn (presumably several hours before their normal rising hour) as police executed warrants at homes in Margate, Broadstairs and Birchington.

Perhaps the rozzers had just got around to reading the headline on the front page of their own PR organ Policing Kent, which trumpeted 'Getting Tough On Graffiti' way back in December.

Meanwhile our newly transformed Prospect Inn got an almighty puff on the BBC at lunchtime. If you recall, it's been converted into a super-duper, 12 star, luxury Express by Holiday Inn, and a very nice job they seem to have done too. The manager was interviewed, saying he was expecting a lot of trade courtesy of its proximity to RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport. Oh dear. I do hope the poor chap's not fallen for this load of arse on the Locate in Kent website, which talks about the airport attracting six million passengers a year!

Click here for BBC graffiti story
Click here for BBC Prospect Inn story

Wobbly Grannys

A regular viewer of ECR TV has emailed me to point out a bizarre daub in Winterstoke Gardens - you know, where the council scrubbed off the graffiti, installed CCTV, then took the CCTV away, and where (surprise surprise) it's now covered in graffiti again. 'Blujah 2000' writes:

I found, by accident, a startling piece of graffiti on the Eastcliff. A folly lies naked and unattended en-route to the doggy park - daubed riotously upon the layers of other layers was the tag: Wobbly Grannys.

Yes, wobbly granny's what? I wish they'd bloody finish these messages. It's not Banksy, or is it? I think we should keep an eye on that area, Richard. They start off innocent, draw you in with their beguiling imagery, and bang! You've got a crop circle on your hands, or worse, a five storey apartment block in the middle of the sea.

Well quite. Even more bizarre is the slogan: 'Jesus is alive - come to church and get a life' which somebody has gone to all the trouble of engraving in the cement next to 'Wobbly Grannys'. What next, 'Romanes eunt domus'?

Prom...

And Ramsgate artist Ruth Cutler's sea art is much more visible now that the ne'er-do-wells have ripped down the banner telling us what it is:

Graffiti art is coming along nicely here, too, after it was scrubbed off in March and CCTV installed for all of ten minutes. I thought the banner headline in the local ball scratchers' magazine recently was 'Getting Tough On Graffiti'? Um, hurrah?

March 2007

December 2007

East Cliff Chopper Strikes Again!

It started with Pugin's nose. Then it was his concrete lion. Not long after, our car crushing, caff crushing, graffiti removing local Councillor Dave Green's bollards were hacked off.

Now someone's gone and hopped off with our all new, turret-mounted, M61 Vulcan 20mm rapid firing machine gun with infrared night vision, which was protecting one of our marvellous monuments from the daubists. Is nothing sacred?

28 March - ICCCTV

19 May - INoCCCTV

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Last week:


This week:


Plus all new, turret-mounted, M61 Vulcan 20mm rapid firing machine gun with infrared night vision (in case anyone feels like getting lucky with a spray can):

Writing On The Wall For Graffiti

Three cheers for our local caff demolishing, car crushing, graffiti removing councillor Dave Green! Following a long campaign, he's finally persuaded the Uranians to remove the eye-watering graffiti from the splendid edifice above, here on Thanet's millionaire row, otherwise known as the East Cliff Ramsgate.

Not only that, but CCTV is to be installed to prevent the daubists from returning to the scene of the crime. Proof that not all our Dad's Army councillors are content to sit back in their bath chairs and drool into their Horlicks.