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Video: Graffiti costs Peterborough £150,000 a year
The number of graffiti incidents blighting the city has fallen by 35 per cent – but it still costs taxpayers a whopping £150,000 a year in clean-up bills.
The number of graffiti incidents blighting the city has fallen by 35 per cent – but it still costs taxpayers a whopping 150,000 a year in clean-up bills.Through the introduction of legal graffiti boards and walls, it appears Peterborough City Council is winning the war against graffiti with the number of tags and lurid swirls reported on walls, bins, lamp posts, fences and homes falling considerably in the past year.
Freedom of Information Figures obtained by The Evening Telegraph reveal there were 4,356 incidents last year, down from 6,769 in 2007.
However, the yobs who blight the city on a daily basis with their unsightly scrawls still leave a huge bill to be picked up. And council figures do not include the tens of thousands of pounds paid out by householders and businesses who undertake the removal job at their own expense.
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Over the past year, the council has strived to combat the problem by encouraging youngsters to show off their talents legally without fear of repercussions.
These include double-sided boards in Orton Goldhay, between Stagsden and Mandeville and Welland Youth Centre, in Redmile Walk, which was the first permanent official legal graffiti site in Peterborough.
Tagger must be caught
Police have issued a plea to catch and stop a "tagger" who will stop at nothing to blight the city with his lurid scrawls.
From fences, lamp-posts and bins to 150-year-old gravestones, whoever is responsible has defaced property with the words "sure", "shaw", "shore" and "su" across the eastern sector of Peterborough – costing taxpayers 25,000 in clean-up bills.
Although the majority of the tags are on homes, shop windows and doors in areas including Dogsthorpe, Welland, Lincoln Road, Eastfield, Eastgate and the city centre, the man has also defaced ancient gravestones at Broadway Cemetery.
Anyone with information should call police on 0845 456 4564, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
Reformed graffiti artist Nathan Murdoch, who has led the campaign for legal walls in the city, said: "Graffiti can be a positive art form when used in the right way.
"It is nice the local authorities are showing more of an interest, but compared to a lot of other cities we are still lagging very much behind and we could still do with more acceptable graffiti places in better locations.
"I have been painting in the city for the past 10 years and things have come on a long way, people are much more understanding, but there are still some stereotypes that we need to get rid of."
Cabinet member for city services, councillor David Sanders added: "I am pleased that the numbers of graffiti incidents has reduced, however, it is still clearly an issue in the city.
"It is a blight on the city and one of the issues my department strives to keep on top of.
"It is important to remember that graffiti is still a crime and should be reported not only to us but also the police if we are to bring the number of incidents down even further."
A Cambridgeshire police spokeswoman said: "Reports of graffiti are taken extremely seriously and are treated as criminal damage.
"If anyone sees it happening, they should call the police so a response unit can be sent to the scene."
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