Graffiti trailer unveiled at Murray Bridge council | VIDEO

"The perception of safety is a really powerful thing," he told a gathering in Murray Bridge on Thursday.

"You can drive into a suburb that's clean, green, the gardens are done, the footpaths are done, there's no graffiti, and you'll go in there feeling safe."

He described graffiti as a "selfish, self-indulgent offence", even when committed by people who were lashing out against the suffering they had experienced in life.

"Don't get me wrong: some of the talent behind it, especially legal graffiti, is just amazing – their capability to scale buildings and hang off bridges defies gravity," he said.

"Illegal graffiti has led to remarkable success for a number of artists who've gone on to structural and contemporary art ... they put their art to good use and sell it.

"But the illegal stuff on our houses, fences and buildings is rubbish, someone's indulgent need to display their presence and take pleasure in seeing their mark on a public place."

Vandals needed to be held accountable, he said, and police needed the public to report graffiti when they saw it.

The occasion was the unveiling of a graffiti removal trailer at the Murray Bridge council.

The unit, custom built by local firm Miegel Engineering, contains a generator, pressure pump, diesel heater and 200-litre water tank.

A team of seven volunteers will use it for hours at a time, several times a week, to clean tags off property around the city.

They demonstrated it for a crowd of about 40 people outside the council chamber, spraying plywood, bricks, a metal fence and a Neighbourhood Watch sign.

Mayor Brenton Lewis said removing unwanted paint jobs would increase community pride.

"(Graffiti) is ugly, just slapped on and run away," he said.

"Cleaning it up does help Murray Bridge go forward: we need to be more proud than what we are, and this helps."

The trailer was funded with a $28,000 grant from the state government.