Tree plan to stop graffiti vandals

Network Rail hopes that it can reduce the high level of graffiti south of London by planting trees in front of buildings and structures targeted by vandals.

The programme has started at Bermondsey Junction, which has cost £150,000 to clean up in the last two years alone. NR Chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE planted the last of 35 trees there on July 1.

NR says it spends around £750,000 a year on the problem, and has tackled 700 other unsightly locations in the South East since the start of the year.

In April, it launched a £1 million programme to set up planting schemes in south London, Surrey, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire over the next three years. The first-year target of 10,000 trees and shrubs has been more than doubled.