Graffiti-busting mother so upset by scrawls around town she spent £8,500 on to buy council machine to clean walls
A generous mum was so disgusted by graffiti in her picturesque home town she has spent a whopping £8,500 on a machine to clean up the streets - because the council couldn't afford one.
Jean Chapman, 47, was furious when she saw a trail of bright red graffiti scrawled around the historic market town of Sudbury, Suffolk, defacing listed buildings and even the town hall.
The mother-of-four couldn't believe vandals had tagged shops, businesses and even signs, leaving the ancient town with a massive £2,000 cleaning bill.
Disgusted of Sudbury: Jean Chapman, 47, has spent £8,500 on a machine to clean up the streets of the historic market town of Sudbury
The mother of four was left so upset at the damage to the town by vandals with spray cans she has been removing it herself with this graffiti-busting machine
Jean was so upset at the damage to the town - set in the Stour Valley, an area of outstanding natural beauty - she bought the council a graffiti-busting machine.
'I was driving to work one morning and saw someone had scrawled red paint all over the town centre,' she said.
'They had even painted on grade two listed buildings and the town hall, which was awful.
'I moved my family from Essex to Sudbury to get away from this sort of thing.
'It's a beautiful historic town and I want it kept that way. I feel very passionate about the graffiti problem and that is why I have taken a stand.' The council previously used graffiti kits which cost £25 each, but could only remove tags - graffiti signatures - from certain surfaces.
Beautiful, historic Sudbury (left) and surrounding villages such as Lavenham (right) have been used as locations for many films and TV productions including Harry Potter and Lovejoy. 'If people come to visit Sudbury they don't want to see graffiti, they want to look at the historical buildings' says Mrs Chapman
They had to pay for outside contractors to remove the other paint marks, which was very costly.
Jean has now given the council a reconditioned mobile graffiti spray cleaning unit which can tackle even the worst hit buildings.
The cleaning unit has been fitted to the community warden~s van to make it mobile and four of the council's workforce have been trained to use the equipment.
Graffiti and chewing gum can now be removed from pavements and buildings using a high pressure jet of water, mixed with specialist chemicals.
'It is like a jet spray but much more powerful,' added Jean, from Acton, Suffolk, who runs her own business supplying engineers to London Underground.
'It comes with a variety of chemicals to tackle different types of paint.
'It makes business sense to have the equipment available and avoid having to pay contractors each time.'
Jean, who moved to Sudbury seven years ago, hopes the machine can be hired out to other local authorities.
'It would be great if a couple of people could be trained to use the machine and it could be hired out and generate an income for the council,' she added.
Partly filmed in Suffolk: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows starring Rupert Grint as Ron and Emma Watson as Hermione
'There are lots of beautiful villages around here and I hope it will help to keep them all clean.
'If people come to visit Sudbury they don't want to see graffiti, they want to look at the historical buildings.' Sue Brotherwood, clerk at Sudbury Town Council, said she was thrilled with the new machine.
'This is excellent news for the town of Sudbury and the council,' she said. 'It is extremely public-spirited of Mrs Chapman and without her help we would not have been able to afford the kit.'
Sudbury, which dates back to Saxon times, had a very prosperous silk and weaving industry and now features many historical houses and churches.
The location was used for filming BBC's Lovejoy and is surrounded by attractive countryside often painted by John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough.
The nearby town of Lavenham was used for filming the latest Harry Potter movie.
The town appears as the fictional town of Godric's Hollow in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one.
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