Press Releases
Graffiti blitz hailed a success (PR 1047)
The amount of graffiti has fallen significantly since Ealing Council introduced a new service to clean up the borough.
Latest figures reveal extensive graffiti has been cut by 15 per cent in the last year, with three times the amount being removed each month.
Since November 2006, the average monthly number of removals has been 1,140. Before then, an average of 343 removals a month were carried out.
Last month (August 2007), nearly 2,000 graffiti tags were removed.
The statistics were provided by independent body ENCAMS which carried out the inspections around the borough. They visited 314 random sites across the borough between April and July and noted 25 sites where significant graffiti was present. This compares to 72 out of 313 sites for the same time last year.
Will Brooks, Cabinet Member for Environment said: “Graffiti taggers are mindless vandals but the introduction of more graffiti removal vans and crews is helping to tackle the problem.
“The figures speak for themselves. Cleaner streets is one of the Council’s priorities and I’m delighted that all the hard work on clearing up graffiti is paying off.”
The vast improvement in the service was kick-started by £400,000 of investment by the Council last summer, to ensure all graffiti and fly-tipping found on public land was cleared up within 24 hours of being reported.
An extra £142,000 has been spent recruiting four more envirocrime officers to be out and about spotting graffiti and reporting it quicker.
And 21 crime prevention cameras have been now been installed in the borough’s smaller towns to help prevent envirocrime and anti-social behaviour.
As part of the Council’s plan to tackle anti-social behaviour and ensure cleaner streets it also introduced a process in October to remove graffiti from shops and homes without having to wait for a disclaimer to be signed by the owner in order to speed up response times.
People experiencing problems with graffiti should call Ealing
Customer Services on 020 8825 6000.