Warwick District Council has agreed a range of measures to discourage and erase words or pictures being scrawled on buildings - and promises swifter removal of offensive language or images.

The authority is spending £30,000 to ease the problem - and Michael Kinson, the councillor responsible for the environment, believes urgent action is needed.

He said: "Graffiti is a real blight on this town - you notice it even more because it's such an attractive area.

"It makes the place look less attractive to tourists, and it's no respecter of anyone's property."

As well as cleaning graffiti from its own buildings more quickly, the district council will take firmer action against private companies and other organisations that fail to do likewise.

It has singled out BT's phone boxes, Chiltern Railways' trains and stations, Network Rail's bridges and tracks, Stagecoach's buses and the Royal Mail's post boxes as frequent targets for vandals - and has drawn up a 'charter' for them to sign, promising "to do all that is reasonably possible" to keep their property clear of graffiti in Warwick district.

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Residents and businesses will also be given more help to clean their houses and premises, with kits provided to wash away the offending paint. The probation service will also be more closely involved, with the council wanting criminals to clear graffiti.

But Coun Kinson (Con, Warwick West) has little time for those who view graffiti as a legitimate form of creative expression.

He said: "It's not art - it's vandalism.

"Some people think there should be special places where graffiti can be sprayed legally, but that just encourages it. These people don't want to be controlled."

Mr Kinson expects the changes, approved this week by the district council's executive committee, to come into force in the next three weeks.