GRAFFITI vandals will be sought in school by police as part of a community crackdown.

Officers will try to match graffiti tags found on bins, doorways and shop shutters to doodles on children's exercise books.

The scheme, which has been used in other areas across the country, will also involve the council and community groups over the next few weeks.

Neighbourhood Watch groups will be asked to raise the issue at meetings and publicise it in their newsletters.

The council will be asked to start cleaning the worst affected areas, and shopkeepers will be given graffiti-remover wipes.

The project is a response to unusually high levels of graffiti in the past three months, with some taggers' covering an area with scores of identical signatures.

It is believed that people will often use one graffiti signature, or tag, repeatedly as a means of marking territory.

A list of most wanted tags was circulated to all local schools earlier this year.

Handsworth Avenue, Highams Park, and Station Road, Chingford, are focal areas in the campaign, which stretches across Chingford Green, Endlebury, Hale End and Highams Park and Hatch Lane wards.

Sgt Natalie Pilsbury, of Chingford Green ward, said: "Removing it is just the short-term plan. We are looking at other boroughs to see how successful their projects are, and action will be taken on a ward-by-ward basis."

If you have any information, contact the Chingford Safer Neighbourhoods Team on 8721 2651 or email chingfordgreen.snt@met.police.uk