A TOURIST information board designed to welcome visitors to Newport has been vandalised, with graffiti stating that non-residents in the city are “not welcome”.

The Visit Newport sign is prominently placed in the city centre, at the pedestrianised section of Commercial Street, near to the bottom of Stow Hill.

Yesterday evening (Monday, August 23), an abusive message was spotted on the sign, and it remained in place into Tuesday morning.

While the sign exists to welcome visitors to the city, it also has a map, which shows points of interest around the city centre, both sides of the river.

Unfortunately, less than welcoming messages have been added to the sign.

Written in black graffiti, the expletive filled message reads: “f*** off your (sic) not welcome in Newport if your (sic) not from here. Joke shop.”

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A second piece of vandalism on the same information board reads: “get out of town now”.

It is not known who is responsible for the unpleasant message.

Visit Newport appears to be operated by Newport City Council, with their website linking back to the council.

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When asked, a spokeswoman for Newport City Council condemned the damage done to the board, and confirmed that action would be taken to remove the message today.

Continuing, she urged anyone with information as to who might have written the message to contact police.

Statement from Newport City Council in full

A spokeswoman for Newport City Council said: “We are disappointed that such as abusive and unwelcoming message would appear anywhere in our city.

“We will be taking action to clean the sign today.

“Anyone with information about who is responsible for criminal damage such as this should report it to the police.”