Graffiti offenders paint a better picture
Police in Harlow have teamed up with Harlow Council and the Youth
Offending Team to spearhead an innovative new project to combat
graffiti in Harlow.
Teenagers, who are subject of a court reparation order, are finding
themselves part of a positive action programme to clean up defaced
areas.
Police community support officer (PCSO) Liz Burton took action
after noticing a substantial rise in graffiti while patrolling her
area.
She said: “Certain places were starting to look run-down all due to
graffiti, which is a shame as generally the area is a very nice
place to be.”
Northbrook’s House Adult Educational College was first to reap the
rewards with special anti-graffiti paint supplied by Essex County
Council to further reduce acts of criminal damage.
PCSO Burton added: “I contacted Northbrook’s
House site manager Andy Critchton, who fully supported the project.
The paint should allow any further acts of graffiti to be easily
washed off.
"This initiative with the West Essex Youth Offending Team aims to
make young offenders take pride in their local community and
hopefully increase their awareness of how their criminal behaviour
affects the community.”
Councillor Joel Charles, Vice-Chairman of the
Council’s Environment & Community Committee, said:
“Graffiti is running down the appearance of
several areas across the town and we need to take more proactive
steps to stop this type of anti-social behaviour continuing. That’s
why I support the Youth Offending Team’s project to help develop
positive citizenship amongst those young people who perpetrate such
vandalism. The minority of young people who commit these types of
offences will be told to clean up or paint over the mess they have
caused. By cleaning up their graffiti I hope the offenders will
begin to develop a stronger sense of pride in their local
community. It costs Harlow Council thousands of pounds in
taxpayers’ money every year to clean the streets of graffiti and if
it's on a private property and not racist or offensive it costs the
owner.
“We need local residents' help to carry on with the crackdown by
reporting the people who commit vandalism by graffiti tagging in
our town."
Successful partnership work between police and Harlow Council’s
community safety team resulted in a 14-year-old schoolboy from the
town being prosecuted for criminal damage to a brick wall in
Sharpecroft. He was given a reparation order by Harlow Youth Court
on Friday, May 29, to clean graffiti off street furniture in
Harlow.
If you wish to report graffiti in your area contact the ‘Its your
call’ action line number on 0845 605 2222 or contact Harlow on
01279 446655.