Response to shop tagging 'patchy'

Efforts to clean graffiti from a Hastings suburb's shops, although appreciated, has left the small retail strip looking "worse than what it was with graffiti".

Oliphant Rd shops are often targeted by taggers and the Hastings District Council's graffiti management team have worked hard to paint over the tags as soon as they appear.

Neighbours Sharon and Edward Hertel said the problem was that the council had to use "whatever paint was available" for the work on graffiti.

"And sometimes that left the shops in a worse state than what they looked like with the graffiti," Mrs Hertel said.

"It looked like a patch-work by the time they had covered all of the buildings and so we've asked the council if they could use just one colour for the whole lot. We've also asked they leave some paint with us so the community can take responsibility of it."

The shops were painted by the council in late September and neighbours had been provided with paint for future removal of graffiti.

One of the shop owners, Jasvir Singh, said he noticed the strip was regularly tagged when he took over the business at the beginning of this year.

"I saw some tagging appear but couldn't find out who had done it. So I cleaned it up myself. Last month the council came and painted over all of the buildings again and now it looks great.

"There was some new tags done a while back but the man across the road (Mr Hertel) had come out straight away to paint over it. Having the shops looking tidy is really good, the customers notice it and it encourages them to come into our shops."

The council reported one of its painters working at Cornwall Park caught a person tagging there a few months ago.

Asset manager David Fraser said in his report that police believed the person was responsible for "two smiley faces" measuring 1.5m2, painted at the Osmanthus Garden in Cornwall Park.

The tagger appeared in court in September and would complete 24 hours' community work, served with the council's painting team to remove graffiti and tags in the district.

"The police report that they have also identified another tagger. This tagger is understood to be responsible for tags around the Mayfair area. Council has provided documentation to the police, which links them to 49 tags."

Mr Fraser said the damage cost of the tags was $12,440.

The council's work on graffiti was being reviewed. In the last quarter 55 notifications of tagging were reported via the council's call centre. There were 32 reported through the no-graffiti website, and 86 letters had been sent to owners asking permission to remove graffiti from their properties.