Graffitis costly clean up bill price tag

BY KYLIE WILLIAMS
20/10/2008 9:38:00 AM
HUNTER businesses and government agencies are desperate for a solution to the growing graffiti epidemic which has cost almost $2.7 million in clean-up bills this past year alone.

The worst-hit areas have been the Newcastle and Cardiff central business districts, where businesses say they have spent a total of more than $1.5 million on removing graffiti tags and cleaning other damage.

Newcastle City Council has spent $350,000 and Lake Macquarie Council $155,000 in the past 12 months to clean up graffiti.

And other councils in the Hunter Region have also had significant bills with Maitland and Port Stephens councils forking out $35,000 and $40,000 respectively to restore buildings attacked by graffiti vandals.

While ratepayers are footing the cost for these attacks, businesses are also paying.

Hunter Business Chamber chief executive Peter Shinnick estimated the cost of graffiti to Newcastle businesses at more than $1 million a year.

Mr Shinnick said some Hunter Street businesses had been unable to get insurance because of repeated attacks by graffiti artists and vandals.

Cardiff Chamber of Commerce has calculated the cost to businesses in its CBD and says they have spent about $670,000 in the past 12 months cleaning up graffiti.

Government agencies have likewise reported the high costs of removing graffiti.

RailCorp spent about $380,000 in the past financial year cleaning graffiti from its trains, stations and property in the Hunter Region.

Hunter Water spent $50,000 in the past year on graffiti removal despite setting up designated areas for graffiti artists to display their work.

"It is quite a lot of money for anyone," a Hunter Water spokeswoman said.

The corporation's biggest target for graffiti was a pump station at Nelson Bay.

She said while Hunter Water's graffiti murals, such as the one at Charlestown water tower, stopped those areas from being attacked they did not prevent graffiti on other assets.

Neither Telstra nor the NSW Department of Education would provide figures on their graffiti clean-up bills.

Mr Shinnick said he believed the graffiti problem in Newcastle was linked to a number of issues in the CBD, including a high number of abandoned buildings and anti-social behaviour.

"There's a whole raft of issues," Mr Shinnick said.

"Graffiti is just the end product of it all. It's just a symptom of all the issues in the CBD."