Shop owners refusing to clean unsightly graffiti from their properties will be forced to cough up cash for its removal, the city council has warned.

Fed-up authority bosses are promising to be "more hard-hitting" on site owners after it was revealed graffiti has escalated by 30% across the Canterbury district.

The council has held the powers to take such action since 2014, but believes now is the time to flex its muscles and put the law to greater use.

Spokesman Rob Davies said: "There are several locations in the city centre where graffiti has been hanging around for far too long, so we will be finding out who is ultimately responsible for a building and aiming to put in place agreements with them where we clean it off and bill them for the work.

"If they don’t want to play ball, we’ll be more hard-hitting with the legal options open to us to force it to be done.”

In a bid to refrain from dishing out cleaning invoices, a council worker will be tasked with improving links and building relationships with business owners across the district’s three towns.

Mr Davies continued: "There has been a considerable increase in the amount of graffiti over the last year, and we have been taking a close look at how we can reverse this trend.

"Until now, we have mainly been reactive, sending out crews to clean up when graffiti has been reported to us, but it’s now time to take a new, far more proactive approach."

This summer, the council vowed to clamp down on graffiti vandals by setting up a taskforce to monitor CCTV footage.

Speaking at the Canterbury Forum earlier this month, Cllr Nick Eden-Green said the council’s battle against graffiti has been "laughable".

“The council says it is a priority but it has taken years to do nothing,” he said.

“I know people are incensed, it is unacceptable. Graffiti is a blight on our fine city so to do nothing about it is utterly inexcusable.”

The Lib Dem councillor, however, has welcomed the city council’s latest firm statement.

He says other authorities and firms, such as Kent County Council and Royal Mail, need to take responsibility for their lampposts, underpasses and pillar boxes.

“There’s got to be a multi-pronged approach. And then, if we get a cleaned up city, you’ve got to carry on and keep it clean.”

The annual council budget for graffiti cleaning is £33,000.