YOU may not have seen Chris and Roger as you move around Bournemouth.

You may not even have seen the effect of what they do. But if they didn't do it, you'd soon be complaining.

Because Chris and Roger's job is to clean off graffiti. How much do they clean off? No one really knows.

They can only measure it by time and the money it consumes. Your money.

Another £15,000 has recently been swallowed up, scrubbing and spraying stupid squiggles and scribbles off other people's walls.

Graffiti takes a few seconds to do - especially the mindless stuff. But it takes ages to get off.

In fact, after nearly half an hour of painting on the initial solution - "Round and round with the brush," advises Chris - my right arm resembles Popeye's.

And I already feel like slapping the young kid who's rolled up to watch, as Chris and Roger and I go about our task of cleaning the brick wall on the walk to the bus depot next to the gardens.

Chris's van is an Aladdin's Cave of solutions, proprietary cleaners, solvents and paint, as well as a thousand cloths, blue latex gloves and brushes.

"Different surfaces require different solutions," says Nic Wedge, operations manager for Bournemouth Borough, and Chris and Roger's boss.

"We always start off with the weakest and then if you need more, we step it up."

I get to paint on the solution. I have to wear a visor and a waterproof jacket and, of course, the gloves.

It's not easy. The brick wall has the texture of concrete sand and it takes ages to adhere the stuff.

We give it 15 minutes to do its thing and then Roger sets to work with the high-pressure hose.

Some letters disappear like magic. Others, like the green squiggles further along, "ghost", leaving a faint outline on the biscuit-coloured surface.

"We have to apply a different solution for that," says Nic.

The wall we are doing will take the men the best part of a day but, as far as I can make out, it can barely be seen anyway. Is there any point?

"Lots of people have to walk past it every day to their work," says Nic. He points out that tourists can see the graffiti from the path through the gardens.

And whatever I might think, graffiti is still one of the scourges of modern society.

In a survey taken in 2005, 37 per cent of British people wanted graffiti cleaned up.

In America, when legendary US police chief and zero tolerance pioneer Bill Bratton took up his new posting in Los Angeles, the first thing he did was to declare war on graffiti tagging - used by the city's vicious gangs to mark out their territory.

Bratton believes that untrammelled graffiti is one of the prime indicators of a run-down, uncared-for area.

Back in Bournemouth Nic - a former art college student himself - explains that the town does have areas - at certain skate parks - where graffiti artists can express themselves.

The borough is also linking up with art college students for an urban programme which will feature controlled use of street art.

So, if this town was ever lucky enough to land itself a Banksy - the iconic images produced by the world's most famous street artist - would we scrub them away? "No comment! But Chris probably would."

Does Chris feel like thumping the people who cause him so much work? "No," he says, peaceably. Isn't it demoralising when they clean a wall and it's covered again a few weeks later? He smiles.

Chris and Roger start work at 7am. On ordinary days.

But, on occasions when they are needed, like the morning of the Remembrance Day Ceremony when graffiti was discovered on the town's Cenotaph, they come out extra early.

Like I said, you may not notice what they do or even see them doing it. But you'd soon notice if they didn't.

  • For a limited time Bournemouth Borough is offering free graffiti cleansing on private buildings. Call Bournemouth 451451 for details.
  • Nina from Christchurch and Lisa from Bournemouth won the Headline Game on 2CR FM's Paul Bunker Show with this headline.