Decision details

(Report of Director of Central Services and Deputy Chief Executive)

The report provided details of the Borough Council’s work in tackling graffiti, including the current reporting mechanisms, the cleaning and removal of graffiti and work with the Community Payback scheme.

Members welcomed the report and noted that the Borough Council’s current approach to tackling graffiti aimed to remove all offensive, racist and abusive graffiti from council-owned land and public property within 48 hours of it being reported, with priority being given to areas on or close to main roads, main town areas and schools.  However, the Borough Council would not remove graffiti from privately owned property, railway structures or telephone boxes and instead, residents would be encouraged to report this graffiti to the police or directly to the landowners.  A flowchart showing the process for reporting graffiti was attached at Annex 1.  A table providing examples of a number of other Kent local authorities’ approaches to tackling graffiti was provided at Annex 3.

The use of graffiti walls to address graffiti issues was discussed and a clarification was made between ‘graffiti walls’ and ‘graffiti/street art’.  Member supported a public consultation be undertaken to gather residents’ views on ‘graffiti walls’, subject to a clear definition of ‘graffiti walls’ being provided in the survey.

Following consideration by the Communities and Environment Scrutiny Select Committee, the Cabinet Member for Transformation and Infrastructure resolved that:

(1)        the graffiti reporting page on the website be further publicised to residents;

(2)        a Graffiti policy setting out how the Borough Council intended to tackle graffiti, be developed;

(3)        a single database to record reports of graffiti across Council Services and record when the graffiti had been removed, be developed; and

(4)        a survey to gather information of views on graffiti and ‘graffiti walls’ from residents, including Parish Councils, be undertaken within the borough.