Anti-graffiti plan supported

Cranbourne Sun
Edition 1 -WED 01 NOV 2000, Page 006
Anti-graffiti plan supported
by KATE ALLEN

CASEY'S residents have given the thumbs up to paying $5 each for the council to adopt a South Australian scheme aimed at ridding the streets of graffiti.
Readers were straight on the phone after reading about the scheme last week, hoping it would work just as well in Casey.
Seventy per cent backed implementation of the scheme.
Some who disagreed with paying $5 were, however, willing to pay for more law enforcement to catch the spray-can vandals.
The zero tolerance approach, named The Graffiti Solution, was implemented in the City of Onkaparinga in 1997.
At a cost of $428,000, it halved graffiti in its first 12 months. In the second year, $335,000 bought a 75 per cent drop.
It helps the council identify hotspots, work out the best way of targetting resources, and brings in money from fines.
Councillors recently voted to defer any possible alteration to the council's existing policy until the authority's mid-year budget review in February.
Pressure group Residents Against Graffiti Everywhere (RAGE) is backing the strategy. Spokesperson Steve Beardon said he knew the majority would be in support of the scheme.
``We knew that when we did the petitions because people were telling us when we were door knocking,'' he said.
Cranbourne Liberal MP Gary Rowe, who is also in support of the scheme, believed residents paid enough and their rates should cover the cost.
``The City of Casey is saying it's just too hard to seriously examine any alternative strategies and therefore won't do anything,'' he said.
``My understanding of the Onkaparinga program is that the initial cost might be quite high, but once it is implemented the recurrent costs drop to less than $100,000 a year.''
Here are a few of your views:
Suzanne King, Devon Meadows:
``We don't have a big problem out here, but we are part of the community so we don't mind doing our share.''
Narre Warren resident:
``Yes I would do anything to get it off, I would pay an extra $5.''
Henny Poole, Cranbourne:
``I vote to pay an extra $5. I live next door to a park and the fence has graffiti on it. Some has been cleaned off, but it leaves patches and looks worse than graffiti. It needs to be painted.''
Miss K M Dick, Doveton:
``I have a solution of my own, instead of charging everybody $5, why not make the parents that have children accountable for their childrens' actions? Half the time the parents don't know what their children are doing and they don't care. I am a single pensioner and I can not afford it