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“I, like many people in the area, have given up any hope of having a prompt response to graffiti removal in Yarra,” she said. “It now means that removal costs are much greater than if the graffiti was dealt with promptly in the first place.”
Yarra is one of four Victorian councils under the watch of a municipal monitor after the state government grew concerned about its “standards of governance and transparency”.
A tagged property in Clifton Hill in the City of Yarra. Credit:Paul Jaffers
Councillor Stephen Jolly said the only way to deal with graffiti and tagging was to take it down as soon as it went up.
“As long as we have this policy I can’t see it improving,” he said.
Jolly said the impact of the policy had been an increase in graffiti on Yarra’s streets and the council needed to bring back removal services for tagging.
“Getting rid of graffiti is a core service like picking up your bins,” he said. “I’m not talking about street art, that needs to be encouraged.”
Jolly said Yarra had taken a $50 million hit to its budget as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and it and many other local councils wanted to cut services rather than increase them.
“I just don’t see where the magic wand is going to come from to fix this,” he said.
In comparison to Yarra the number of graffiti offences across Victoria have remained fairly stable over the past three years with 3044 offences recorded in 2019, 3062 in 2020 and 3034 in 2021.
A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said the police took reports of criminal damage and graffiti vandalism seriously.
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“The increase in graffiti in the Yarra area over the last two years can be attributed to the restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic, with graffiti vandals preying on the fact there were fewer people out and about to deter them from vandalising buildings and structures,” she said. “Local police work closely with Transit Safety Division as well as external partners including the City of Yarra council to share intelligence and identify those involved in this offending.”
Yarra council was contacted but declined to respond.
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