The £12,000 artwork was finished on 7 September and tagged by the weekend of 20 September. Cleaning it off cost taxpayers a few hundred pounds.

A new public artwork on the East Cliff sea wall at Herne Bay was finished on 7 September. By the weekend of 20 September it had been tagged, and Canterbury City Council says removing the graffiti cost taxpayers a few hundred pounds.

The mural cost £12,000. All of it came from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, not the council’s own budget, and the sum covered the artist’s fee, materials, community engagement and installation.

The council’s statement on Monday was unusually direct.

Council staff were as disgusted as residents when they saw the tagging on the newly-completed mural. A huge thank you to the graffiti team and Canenco for acting so quickly to remove this.

Tagging is disrespectful and unsightly, it’s not art, it’s the human equivalent of an animal marking its territory, and it’s unacceptable.

That is Cllr Connie Nolan, the council’s cabinet member for community safety, in the council’s own statement. The council added that the mural had been coated in an anti-graffiti covering once it was finished, and that its graffiti team worked with Canenco’s cleaners on the Monday morning to take the tags off.

What was commissioned, and when

The council published the brief in May. It wanted a permanent, site-specific piece on the sea wall east of the new beach huts, on the King Charles III England Coast Path, to replace what the brief calls “ad hoc artwork created by an unknown artist”.

From the artist’s brief:

  • the wall is nine segments: five rectangles of roughly 4.6m high by 2.2m wide, and four more that shrink as the wall drops towards the promenade
  • the surface is breeze block, and proposals had to show how the wall would be prepared “to maximise longevity and protect against environmental exposure and vandalism”
  • at least one community engagement workshop had to be included
  • materials had to be environmentally friendly
  • the artist had to carry £5m public liability and £5m indemnity cover
  • the council reserved the right to remove the artwork on two weeks’ notice

The stated aims were to pull footfall towards the eastern end of the seafront, to reflect Herne Bay’s identity, and to support the town centre strategy the council adopted last year.

Timeline of the Herne Bay East Cliff mural: commission opened 25 May 2026, proposals closed 29 June, artist appointed by week commencing 27 July, installation began 17 August, project completed 7 September, tagging found over the weekend of 20 September, graffiti removed 21 September
Graphic by Canterbury Live
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Under a fortnight

The council’s timetable put project completion and final payment on Monday 7 September. The vandalism was spotted “over the weekend” before the statement of Monday 21 September, and cleaned that morning.

On the council’s own published dates, the artwork was unmarked for about a fortnight. The council has not given the exact date the tagging appeared.

The anti-graffiti coating is the reason the clean-up was quick and the reason the bill was in the hundreds rather than the thousands. It is a sacrificial layer: tags come off it without taking the paint underneath. It has to be reapplied after each clean, which is the cost the council is describing.

The council has not said who painted it

Canterbury City Council announced the commission on 3 June and announced the vandalism on 21 September. It has published nothing in between. There is no statement naming the artist it appointed, no photographs of the finished work, and no record of the community workshop the brief required.

We have not been able to establish the artist’s name from any first-party source, so we are not naming one.

That is a gap worth closing. A £12,000 publicly funded artwork on a seafront promenade is the kind of thing a town gets told about when it is unveiled, not when it is damaged.

What it means for you

The mural is on the promenade east of the beach huts, past the eastern end of the main seafront, on the stretch of the coast path that runs on towards Beltinge and Reculver. It is back to how it looked before the tagging.

The council’s own report graffiti page is worth knowing about, because the offer is better than most people assume:

  • graffiti on your home is removed free of charge up to four times a year
  • graffiti on your business is removed free up to twice a year
  • the council also wants to hear about graffiti on play areas, public toilets and council property
  • there is a £500 reward for information that identifies a graffiti vandal
  • if you see it happening, the council says to call 999 and report it as a crime in progress

The reporting form takes photographs and a dropped map pin.

Herne Bay has had £270,000 of government money for its play areas this year as well. We covered where that is going in our report on the Herne Bay Playground Fund award.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the new Herne Bay mural?

On the East Cliff sea wall, east of the new beach huts on Herne Bay promenade, along the King Charles III England Coast Path.

How much did the Herne Bay East Cliff mural cost?

£12,000, covering the artist’s fee, materials, community engagement and installation. The money came from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

How much did it cost to clean off the graffiti?

Canterbury City Council says “a few hundred pounds”. It has not published an exact figure.

Who painted the East Cliff mural?

The council has not said. It advertised the commission on 3 June 2026 with a deadline of 29 June, and has published no announcement of who was appointed.

How do I report graffiti in Herne Bay?

Through Canterbury City Council’s report graffiti page. The council removes graffiti from a home free of charge up to four times a year, and from a business twice a year, and offers a £500 reward for information that identifies a graffiti vandal.

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