A pensioner has compared Folkestone to a shanty town.

Barbara Plumley made the comparison after getting sick and tired of seeing endless graffiti near her home in Dudley Road.

In particular the 80-year-old, who has lived Folkestone since 2002, is concerned about the amount of graffiti in the alleyway between Southbourne Road and Penfold Road, and on the walls near the train tracks.

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She said: “The alleyway is in a terrible state.

"It makes you feel as if you’re living in a shanty town. I don’t feel unsafe, it is just very dirty.

"Some of it is old but some is new; it is appearing all the time and in different parts of the town.

"I used to live in Dymchurch but moved to be closer to amenities. But I don’t like it, not with all the graffiti."

The complaint comes after Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) revealed the area officer team, appointed in October 2018, has removed 4,000 pieces of graffiti in seven months.

That equates to 570 individual pieces being removed a month.

Mrs Plumley said: "The council has been very good and cleaned some away already.

"They came down this week and looked at the alley and said it is a lot to clean."

WATCH: Hundreds of graffiti tags removed across Canterbury as part of blitz

This is not the first time Mrs Plumley has spoken out about graffiti in Folkestone.

In December last year she confronted a vandal who spray painted hundreds of 'masons' tags all over the town.

After spotting him in the act the feisty pensioner stealthily followed the man to his house before alerting the police.

She also approached him when she saw him in a shop, but sadly added he had 'no remorse'.

But she believes the recent bout of graffiti - which also covers the wall near the railway line off Tram Road - is a different offender, as the 'masons' tag is not present.

Cllr Stuart Peall, cabinet member for enforcement, regulatory services, waste and building control, said: “Our area officers have visited Mrs Plumley to assess the situation.

"This graffiti is in an access alleyway that is too narrow for us to use a jetwash and has clearly been there for some years.

"We will arrange for it to be painted out, together with other graffiti in the area that has been revealed by vegetation clearance.

"Our teams have cleared almost 4,000 pieces of graffiti in the seven months they have been in post, with an average turnaround time of one day, so we would always encourage people to report it to use via our website and it will be dealt with quickly."

• To report graffiti, visit www.folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/report-a-problem/graffiti

Folkestone is not the only part of Kent to have been blighted by graffiti and earlier this year hundreds of tags were removed from Canterbury's streets as part of a blitz.

Read more: All the latest news from Folkestone