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Woman in court after graffiti attack on Town Hall and city centre
The vandalism on the pillars at the front of the Town Hall, which has left Peterborough City Council with an expensive bill to clean it up. Picture: David Lowndes/Peterborough ET
Friday, 8am update: 23-year-old Samantha Moss from Peterborough will appear at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court charged with criminal damage and breach of an ASBO following black and red paint being sprayed on a number of buildings on Thursday (8 September).
A MASSIVE clean-up operation in Peterborough has begun after a “diabolical” graffiti spree against city centre buildings including the Town Hall. A vandal scrawled obscenities and other logos and slogans across the Town Hall, banks, building societies and shops as they went on the rampage in the city centre on Thursday morning leaving the council with a huge clean-up bill.
Messages written in red and black spray paint on the Town Hall, in Bridge Street, included “mockery”, “shambles” and “thiefs”.
Symbols were also drawn on banks, building societies, shops and street furniture during the attack, which is believed to have been carried out at about 4am.
The graffiti on the Town Hall was covered up by dust sheets while Enterprise Peterborough prepared to remove it.
Peterborough City Council leader councillor Marco Cereste said he was horrified by the damage.
He said: “This was diabolical. It is unbelievable that someone could do this to their own city. It is beyond words.
“It was bad enough when we had people scrawling graffiti on the roofs of banks in the city centre, but this is even worse.
“We need to crack down on this and the punishment should fit the crime and the person.
“It is easy to say they should be hung, drawn and quartered, but we need to understand why they have done what they have done, and find out how to stop them doing it again in the future.
“The sentence needs to be appropriate - if that means putting them away for 500 years then fine, if that means getting them the help they need then fine.
“I know there is CCTV in the area and I would be surprised if there was not footage of them available.”
The clean-up began yesterday but it is expected to be an expensive job, which could take days.
Richard Paten, Peterborough Civic Society president, said: “It seems to be an expression of today’s society.
“It will be expensive to repair the damage to the Town Hall as the paint could have gone deep into the stone. If it has soaked deep into the stone it could be a very serious incident, as some stone may have to be sacrificed.
“Something has to be done to address the nature of the problems that have caused someone to do this.
“I think that whoever has done this should be put on display in the Town Hall for six hours to face the public. People don’t like being laughed at.”
Mike Heath, partnership director of Enterprise Peterborough, said: “We believe that the Town Hall and a number of banks and building societies in the city centre were defaced before 4am this morning.
“An Enterprise Peterborough team carried out a survey at 5am and work began at 6.30am to remove the graffiti on the Town Hall and, where necessary, cover areas of stone until work can begin.
“Given the nature and age of the building, the process of removing the graffiti will be handled with great care. A team of two will be using pressure washers and appropriate chemicals, having first patch-tested the stone. We estimate that the work will take up to two days.
“We are sure that everyone in Peterborough shares our disappointment that one of the city’s heritage buildings has been damaged in this way and appeal to anyone who has any information to come forward.”
A spokesman from Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, whose Cathedral Square branch was targeted, said: “We had graffiti on our front window and door.
“It was sprayed on using black paint, although there were no words or messages. We have now cleaned it off and are speaking to police about it.”
Nigel Meffen, a spokesman for Nat West Bank, whose Bridge Street branch was also hit by the vandal, said the council had helped clear the scrawls off.
He said: “We can confirm NatWest in Peterborough was - along with other local banks - the subject of a graffiti attack last night. Thanks to the support of the council it was quickly removed.”
A Halifax Building Society spokesman added: “I can confirm the branch was targeted, but it is now a police matter.”
Police arrested the 23-year-old woman yesterday in connection with the vandalism and took her to Thorpe Wood Police Station for questioning.
Anyone with information should contact police on 0345 456 4564 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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