AN angry mother, disgusted by the ‘vile’ graffiti that coats one side of the underpass in Tavistock Meadows, is taking it upon herself to fix the problem to stop hundreds of children being subjected to inappropriate images and language on a daily basis.

Terri Thompson, from Tavistock, walks her three children — aged eight, ten and 14 — through the underpass to and from school every day and said she was sick of her children being subjected to it.

‘The underpass is covered in genital pictures, grotesque swear words and pictures of sexual acts,’ said Terri. ‘Things you wouldn’t want your children to see, yet thousands of kids see it every day as it is right by the schools. It’s been there for so long and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Young kids and even teenagers shouldn’t be seeing that type of language and those kind of images every day.’

Terri said she had tried to ascertain who owned the underpass but neither West Devon Borough Council nor Devon County Council were claiming ownership of it, so she has taken it upon herself to do something about it.

After posting about the issue on the Tavistock Parish Facebook page, Terri has received lots of support from other parents, who were equally disgusted by the graffiti.

Fellow Tavistock mother Lisa Piper, who walks her five-year-old daughter to school through the underpass every day, has offered to help Terri with her mission. Lisa was instrumental in clearing up the underpass two years ago, when she became fed up of seeing broken bottles and graffiti blighting the area back then. At that time she cleared the area of debris herself and managed to get people on the ‘Payback Scheme’ — offenders given community service orders — to whitewash the underpass and instigated a project with Tavistock College to get students to paint a mural on one side.

Since then, the mural side has not been defaced but the plain white wall on the opposite side has been heavily graffitied.

Lisa said: ‘I got involved two years ago. There was broken glass, graffiti and alcohol bottles — it was a mess. I went down and cleaned it up and arranged for it to be whitewashed and for the college students to paint one side. Now, the other side is horrendous and I walk my daughter through the underpass nearly every day.

‘The side with the mural hasn’t been defaced so it shows that if you give the youngsters some ownership over it, people are more likely to respect it.’

Terri and Lisa are now planning to have the graffitied side whitewashed and are hoping that Tavistock Primary School will be able to get involved by getting the pupils to paint something on the expanse.

However, in order to undertake the project, funding for paint is needed and the mothers are asking any businesses or local people who would like to help, either with manpower or donations, to contact Shields on Vigo Bridge which has agreed to hold any donations for paint.

Terri said: ‘I have already spoken to a couple of businesses which are willing to help. We just need some money to pay for the paint. Even if people can donate £5 or £10 it would be a great help. If we get more than enough donations, we can use the left over money elsewhere where it may be needed.’

Since being contacted by the Times though, the school and Devon County Council have pledged to take action themselves.

Mike Bomford, spokesman for Devon County Council, said the council had been approached by the primary school, offering the pupils’ time to help repaint the walls in the underpass.

“We’re delighted to be working with the school,” he said. “The plan is that we’ll clean up the subway and provide a base coat, and school children can design and paint the rest. It’ll look brilliant and I’m sure it’ll be artwork that the community can be proud of.”

Headteacher at Tavistock Community Primary School Lynnette Selbie said: ‘We are absolutely happy to help in order to cover the offensive language and inappropriate drawings and would like to see it done before the summer break.’