A heartfelt letter from two young sisters urges city residents to help clamp down on unsightly graffiti.

Sisters Sophia, seven, and four-year-old Amayah were shocked to notice tags scrawled on walls and street furniture across Canterbury.

Sophia, who is in Year Two at Blean Primary School, wanted to put pen to paper to urge others to take action.

So with the help of her parents, she wrote: “Dear residents of Canterbury, I write this letter as a plea to protect our world heritage site from becoming known for its graffiti rather than its diverse nature.

“Me and my sister have become very sad and upset with the amount of graffiti that is occurring in our beautiful city.

“It gives the impression to visitors that people don’t care about where they live.

“I see where I live is becoming more ugly and I think it would be a good idea if Canterbury came together to clean it up.

“I feel it would be a good idea if we held a community clean up day.”

Sophia’s dad, Marc Horton, 42, says the girls have grown increasingly inquisitive about the meaning of graffiti during lockdown.

“I think it’s the aesthetics more than anything,” he explained. “They like things to be pretty, and obviously it’s a bit of a blot on the city.

“They’re starting to enquire ‘why? What is all that about?’, and the more you talk about it, the more you start to notice it.”

City councillor Nick Eden-Green, who has long-campaigned for a tougher crackdown on graffiti, has praised the young girls for their valiant efforts.

“How absolutely marvellous to hear from young citizens who really care about where they live,” he said.

“Sophia and Amayah are shining examples and should be congratulated.”

He added that cleaning up graffiti is not safe for people of all ages.

“Unfortunately, it is a hard job and uses some quite dangerous chemicals to clean it off,” he said. “Thus only trained specialists can tackle bigger graffiti.”

However, he has asked the girls to provide him with a list of graffiti they would like to see tackled.

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“I have organised and been involved with a lot of community litter picks where young people have been really helpful in cleaning up the streets,” he added.

“I’d be delighted to join them, perhaps with some of my colleagues, to clean the litter from some of the streets in their area.”

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