A NATIONAL conference on the urban plague of graffiti is held in the North-East next month.

Newcastle's International Centre for Life is to hold the pioneering multi-agency Tackling Graffiti conference on March 29.

Home Office representatives, council leaders, police and graffiti experts will be among those taking part.

Organised by North-East transport firm Nexus, the conference will look at the cause, deterrents and recent successes of worldwide anti-graffiti measures.

Mike Parker, director general of Nexus - itself a constant victim of the street menace - said public transport in particular has been targeted.

He said: "Local graffiti is a growing problem on our Metro system in the last couple of years. Although we regularly remove it from stations, we have lost the battle on the track-side.

"Graffiti is a genuine sub-culture that has several different branches. Some of them think they are artists who are brightening up a brick wall, while others are into tagging, which is putting their own individual signature in as many places as possible.

"We are going to look at ways to steer these people down other paths of activity."

For a delegate registration form, or for more details, contact Tracey Hives at Nexus on 0191-203 3202.