Graffiti management discussed at council

Narrabri Shire Council has discussed graffiti management after an extensive report was tabled by senior management.

The matter was one of the main points of discussion at the September council meeting and follows an earlier mayoral minute voicing concern about increased vandalism in the shire.

Mayor Darrell Tiemens again took particular issue with recent graffiti.

“It just drives me insane,” he told the meeting before asking general manager Eloise Chaplain to elaborate on the report.

Ms Chaplain said council directors had contributed to the detailed document.

This was also acknowledged by Cr Tiemens, who said there had been great work across the council in the broader issue of vandalism.

Ms Chaplain said it had been difficult to gather information about the costs of removing graffiti, but the council had planned to improve in that area.

The council maintains a rapid response with vandalism that is deemed as offensive, with a target removal timeframe of 24–48 hours.

“Remarks that are quite personal … certain types of language … we try and get to that very, very quickly,” Ms Chaplain said.

“However, other types of graffiti, we are more reactive to when we remove those.”

Ms Chaplain indicated that if councillors wanted to speed up the removal of non-offensive graffiti, the council would need to look at its budget.

“We just don’t have the capacity within the current budget to act any quicker on those pieces than we currently do,” she said.

The detailed report tabled at the meeting noted that the council is improving how it works behind the scenes in terms of graffiti damage.

Ms Chaplain said there were also opportunities to work with different community groups.

She said the report also detailed what was achieved during NarraBRIGHT and some new painting artwork.

Cr Brett Nolan queried council staff about including security cameras at the soon-to-be-completed play equipment located near The Crossing Theatre.

Ms Chaplain said the council had included looking at a review of CCTV locations.

Corporate and community services director Mark Watt said the issue of further CCTV locations was a funding issue.

“Most of the money we spend each year is devoted towards upgrading cameras and putting new cameras in strategic locations, which is quite limited funding-wise,” he said.

Mr Watt said the council was talking to NSW Police in terms of priority areas.

“I won’t say where they are at this point in time. And certainly not in that area,” he said.

Mr Watt suggested when the council installs such facilities, CCTV cameras should be installed as part of the funding.

“That’s the only way we’re going to be able to afford CCTV,” he said.

Ms Chaplain further addressed the issue of CCTV and said it didn’t act as a method to deter vandals, but is helpful when it comes to prosecuting offenders.

Cr Brett Dickinson also contributed to the debate and highlighted damage to Tamworth’s $12m Sky Walk soon after it was unveiled.

“I think we need to be on the front foot with this,” he said of the new play precinct.

“I did suggest some time ago about council trying to find funding for a CCTV trailer.”

Cr Tiemens queried if the council used the services of a local security service.

Ms Chaplain acknowledged that the business did conduct nightly patrols in the CBD.

She told the meeting the focus should be on preventing vandalism, including working a crime prevention plan so “people don’t pick up a spray can to start with”.

Cr Greg Lamont queried the timeframe responding to graffiti and said quick response is the key.

“I might think that when you’re in your planning of your responses to any report of graffiti, that happens ASAP,” he said.

“Because these little … are all about ‘look at me, look at me, I’ve tagged on this, I’ve done on that’.”

Cr Jocellin Jansson expressed similar sentiment to Cr Lamont and said she liked that the community is empowered to react quickly. “The quicker that we can react and remove the satisfaction from graffiti artists’ minds that they’ve tagged … or they’ve made their mark [the better],” she said.