Canterbury-Bankstown City Council has recently begun cleaning the streets of graffiti following the New South Wales Government implementation of the Graffiti Management Program in November last year.
The Graffiti Management Program is an initiative that was granted to 7 councils across the state that aims to limit graffiti in suburbs across NSW by minimising areas in which offenders are able to vandalise public property as well as removing any previous graffiti.
After seven months the Canterbury-Bankstown Council is underway in applying the program to their area.
This includes applying anti-graffiti coatings to walls across these suburbs as well as increasing lighting in streets and planting trees in graffiti-prone areas to make them less appealing for offenders to vandalise.
The seven councils that have gained access to the Graffiti Management Program include the Northern Beaches Council, Canterbury-Bankstown Council, City of Ryde Council, Sutherland Shire Council, Hornsby Council, Shellharbour Council and Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.
Tony Sarkis, a vandalism cleanup volunteer within Canterbury-Bankstown believes that the program has already begun working.
“It’s honestly so good to see the government take action, it’s clearly already working and the streets so far are significantly better.”
Sarkis has been a volunteer for 3 years and believes that the initiative won’t completely stop the graffiti problem that has affected Canterbury-Bankstown and the 6 other councils that were granted the initiative but it will help deter offenders.
When the program was first implemented, Attorney General, Mark Speakman stated that the initiative was put in place to ultimately stop the activation of street art and remove unwanted graffiti.
However, Speakman also understands the importance that street art can have in decorating and bringing new life to public spaces.
“Great street art is a legitimate way to beautify and revitalise public spaces. It can bring communities together, mark significant moments in time, inform, inspire and lead people to think in new and different ways about a variety of subjects.”
A graffiti artist who goes by the alias ‘Chase’ believes that although “disheartening” he understands that the program was a necessary implementation by the NSW Government.
“I would say that I use graffiti as a way to express myself and use it as a creativity outlet. If done right it can add to the personality of the streets”
“It was a move that the government needed to take so I get it though, the graffiti in the area is just getting out of hand and even I’ll admit it was starting to become a bit of an eye sore.”
Find additional information about graffiti removal in Canterbury-Bankstown here.
For more information about Council’s free graffiti removal service, contact the Coordinator Cleaning on 9707 9592.
If you see someone engaging in graffiti, please report it immediately to:
Police Assistance Line – 13 14 44
Crime Stoppers – 1800 333 00 (anonymous)
