BUSINESS bosses have been urged to have some pride after a council report claimed they were refusing to remove graffiti from their buildings.

East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce called on businesses in Blackburn with Darwen to work with the council to improve the appearance of the borough.

A report to a council watchdog committee claimed that property owners would rather allow graffiti to remain on their property than pay to have it removed.

Blackburn with Darwen Council spends more than £50,000 a year cleaning spray artists' work from public buildings. It also pays for racist and offensive graffiti removal, but has no power to make companies shift other graffiti.

The committee has been briefed with coming up with solutions to the problem - possibly increasing the budget to £500,000 to provide a free graffiti service.

A report stated: "This is what larger authorities which are concerned with their image do to provide a free graffiti removal service, and considering the increasing reluctance of potential service users to pay, this may be the way we have to go.

"In the past there has never been a problem with people contributing to cleaning graffiti but the attitude now seems to be 'we've paid our council tax, you remove it'."

But Coun Mohammed Khan, whose housing and neighbourhood services portfolio includes graffiti removal, urged companies to help the community at large.

He said: "We have no power to make people remove graffiti if it is not offensive or racist.

"But it does make an area look bad and it can lead to other problems such as attracting crime.

"At the moment, we just don't have the budget to sort it all out for everyone. People need to have some civic pride and think about the town as a whole."

Individual departments within the council spend around £15,000 collectively cleaning up their own buildings from illegal drawings.

And £10,000 has just been spent to clean up parts of Blackburn and Darwen town centres.

The committee report claims that school visits and so-called 'free expression boards' - where would-be vandals can express themselves legally - have little effect.

Michael Damms, chief executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said: "Graffiti and civic pride are undoubtedly linked and graffiti certainly damages people's first impression of the town.

"We must make it all our responsibility, not just the council's."

Blackburn police's town centre sergeant Dave Sherrington said: "When it is permanent spray paint or permanent marker it is actually criminal damage and offenders will be prosecuted."

Ron O'Keefe, president of Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade, said: "Graffiti is a problem in the town centre and is something I have brought up at chamber of trade meetings. We need to gee up people to wash it off."