Maroondah City Council recently received a VicSafe Community Safety and Crime Prevention Award for the successful implementation of its Graffiti Strategy Pilot Program. Council has reduced the incidence of graffiti by 80 percent. The VicSafe Awards recognise and promote the achievements of a range of agencies and organisations in preventing crime.
The Maroondah Strategy aims to eliminate and clean up graffiti throughout the City, to make residents and visitors feel safe and remove the stigma and fear attached to graffiti ridden areas. Kealy Smith, Council’s Graffiti Pilot Project Coordinator, said that during 1997 graffiti and vandalism cost Maroondah ratepayers $140,000.
“Graffiti can often incite fear in the local community as its presence may be perceived as a lack of control,” she said. “What Council is trying to do is to make people aware that there are ways we can reduce graffiti, so that people feel safe and are able to access all areas of their community with confidence.”
The area chosen for the pilot study represented a broad cross section of activity. With a high incidence of graffiti, previous actions had only short term results.
The new Strategy focuses on three objectives.
- Policing of graffiti
- Cleaning and removal of graffiti
- Proactive initiatives to reduce the likelihood of graffiti reoccurring.
It involves many sectors of the community working together. These include residents, traders, schools, Council staff and police.
Over the six month trial actions included community clean up days, a clean up trailer run by community groups, a reporting process providing a regional graffiti database, and community information sessions.
Recommendations resulting from the project include alternative community art projects where young people can display their work legitimately, and the extension of this initiative to include schools and community groups to ‘Adopt a Facility’ for which they are then responsible.
Crucial to the success of the pilot project has been the immediate and consistent cleaning and removal of graffiti, to minimise exposure of graffiti.
For further information, contact Kealy Smith, telephone (03) 9871 0242.
