IT was hailed by city chiefs as evidence that they were winning the war on vandals.

But four months after this York tunnel was scrubbed clean, it is once more covered in ugly graffiti.

Marygate tunnel, cited as an example of the success of the York Pride campaign, has again been daubed with unsightly tags and messages.

One local councillor today said the council should do more to deal with the causes of the problem, rather than simply the effects.

Coun Ken King, whose Clifton ward borders the tunnel, said: "Any graffiti that is there at present obviously needs cleaning up, because the longer you leave it, the worse it gets. You have to keep on top of it.

"Once you let it go, it just snowballs, but we really need to be targeting the people responsible for putting the graffiti there in the first place, and I am not sure the city council is doing enough to target those irresponsible people.

"I would like to see more action by the council and police to tackle those responsible, rather than just cleaning it up.

"The police are doing quite a good job, but they cannot do it on their own, and it has got to be a combined effort by the public, council and police.

"You cannot just allow the police to tackle it by themselves. It's an impossible task."

Coun Andrew Waller, the council's executive member for neighbourhood services, said: "The York Pride campaign is constantly working with the police, and schools, to obtain information and maintain a database of photographs of tags, which has been used in recent prosecutions of culprits.

"I would urge all residents to be vigilant and report any information to the police or York Pride on 01904 551551."

He said he appreciated recognition of the council's work on York Pride, but said: "It is easy for Coun King to wring his hands about this issue, but only the Liberal Democrats have made progress on tackling graffiti.

"When the Labour party was in control of the council there were no targets for graffiti removal, nor did they prosecute anyone."