Press Releases
Graffiti Payback Scheme gets young offenders to brush up their act (PR 916)
Young offenders spent five hours painting over a 200m-long, graffiti-covered fence in Perivale at the weekend to pay back for their own graffiti and criminal damage crimes.
Their work was part of the borough’s new pilot scheme to get young offenders to make amends to the community and understand the consequences of their anti-social actions by doing constructive work that links to their crime.
The five young people, aged 13 to 17 years, used brushes to re-paint the scrawled fence that runs along the tube line, a few hundred metres from Perivale Station. The known graffiti hotspot is hidden from public view, behind residential housing, and is a thoroughfare for local residents.
Councillor Sue Emment, cabinet member for safer communities, said: “Graffiti is unsightly, unwelcoming and brings down the general atmosphere of an area at a huge cost to the local community.
“We are determined to crack down on anyone who thinks the borough is a free canvas for their illegal scrawl, and this new scheme offers a constructive way for offenders to make amends and give something back to the local community.
“In fact, in their feedback, most of the young people said they were concerned that their hard work and the freshly-painted fence would be ruined by graffiti again, so the message certainly got through to them.”
Ensuring borough streets are cleaner by tackling graffiti and rubbish, and building safer communities, are two of the council’s three priorities.
Under the new Graffiti Payback Scheme, groups of young offenders will visit different graffiti hotspots in the borough every fortnight. The work is undertaken under court order and the young people are not paid for the work they do.
Kari Pilkington, reparation coordinator, Ealing Youth Offending Service, said: “The young people did a great job and painted four times as much as we were expecting.
“They all turned up on time and they all went home with a different attitude from when they arrived. They now look at graffiti and the damage it does to the community in a whole new light.
“As a result, we believe this new scheme will help to reduce re-offending rates and change their futures.”
Notes to Editors:
· The first Graffiti Payback operation took place in
Perivale from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 27 January.
· The Graffiti Payback Scheme is run by Ealing Youth
Offending Service in partnership with the council’s envirocrime
prevention team. They work together to identify graffiti hotspots
and evaluate site safety.
· Ealing Youth Offending Service is a multi-agency
partnership managed and funded jointly by Ealing Council and the
Home Office.
· The council’s third priority is providing value for
money services.