Meet the Edinburgh man on mission to rid neighbourhood of 'never-ending' graffiti

A life-long Edinburgh resident is on a mission to rid the town of graffiti because he “wants people to feel good about living in Portobello.”

Colin Cornwall, 69, goes out every other day to pick litter and paint over fresh graffiti - or “tags”. He recently spent two hours whitewashing graffiti on the bridges in Fillyside.

The Portobello local takes issue with the amount of graffiti and that covering it up is a “never-ending job”.

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He said: “I don’t like graffiti and neither do most people in Portobello. It’s depressing to see and it brings people down. I like the town to be nice and clean.

“I live here and I love it and want other people to feel good about living in Portobello.”

Colin says the “taggers” are persistent and frequently re-graffiti the tags he paints over.

The 69-year-old added: “I’m at war with one or two of the taggers. I paint over it and they come back the next day and do it again.

“Eventually, they stop because it takes them one or two hours to do a fancy tag, but it takes me 10 minutes to paint over it.

“I have a lot of paint and a lot of time.”

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Trevor MacDonald, another Portobello resident, is committed to covering up graffiti and once spent six hours painting over tags on Brunstane Road.

He and a group of neighbours ran four lengths of extension cable to get a power washer over to the road.

He said: “I dont have a problem with murals, but graffiti just hurts my eyes.”

Trevor is retired and said his age benefits him since he can spend more time throughout the week painting over tags.

He added: “[The taggers] will come back and do it again, but eventually they get bored of it. We’re older and retired. We have all the time in the world and a lot of patience.”

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