CALLS have been made for people to come forward and help police after “disgusting” graffiti was daubed over Chipping Norton’s town hall.

PCSO Cheryl Harrison, of Thames Valley Police, told town councillors at Monday night’s meeting the graffiti was part of an ongoing problem with young people using the town hall as a “recreation area”.

But she said not one member of the public reported the graffiti, instead it was up to the town clerk to call the police.

“The graffiti on the town hall is absolutely disgraceful,” she said. “Some of it is absolutely disgusting. The sad thing is we don’t get enough complaints about it.”

PSCO Harrison said cuts to the number of officers in the town in recent years had not helped matters.

“I used to be permanent in the town centre,” she said. “Unfortunately like everything I now cover a much bigger area. Probably two years ago I was here all day every day without fail.

“This doesn’t happen now sadly. We rely on the public to report this incidents and the public knows who these people are.

"People know and see this happening but the only person who reported it to us was the town clerk. I find it amazing this happened and members of the public don't tell us."

She said people need to report incidents, so more resources would be available to Chippy.

“If it gets reported irrespective if we get there or not, it creates a history of what’s going on and we can look to try and get other measures put in place,” she added. “It's an ongoing issue in that area.

"I would be happy to get 10 calls a day, at least people would be working with us but no one is reporting the problems here. I then may end up getting another PCSO which would be fantastic."

Mayor Mike Tysoe said the offensive scrawl had cost the town nearly £400 to clean and vowed to make the culprits pay.

“If we find the culprits we will try and get the money back,” he said. “It’s very important if anybody sees anybody misbehaving to call 101 and they will get there as soon as they can.”

The town council also agreed with Councillor Don Davidson’s proposal of looking into CCTV at their next meeting.

Members previously discussed installing the technology about three years ago but after finding the cost would be about £15,000, did not take it any further.