I was appalled to see the huge amount of graffiti which has appeared on Cottingham Road and Newland Park in the past day or two. Not only has the brickwork entrance to Newland Park been tagged, so have a number of the trees on Cottingham Road.
Graffiti has also sprang up on the concrete barriers on the County Road North flyover again. I had this cleaned a couple of months back and will ensure it is cleared away. The best way to defeat these vandals is to ensure that their 'works of art' are removed as quickly as possible.
I rang straight through to the Wyke Area Team on Thursday to ensure that our graffiti removal team are made aware of the graffiti. I hope that we will see it removed in the next week or so.
Graffiti has been a growing problem in the Wyke Area which is why John and I took a motion to Council on the issue. We have also agreed to fund some community graffiti removal kits from our CIB budget which will be made available to local residents who wish to make a stand themselves.
You can certainly rest assured that John and I will continue to act on graffiti, although we would be helped if the courts took a more serious view on graffiti than they do at present. Simple community sentences clearly do not work for graffiti artists and it is time we got tougher, they do afterall do thousands of pounds worth of damage to public and private property.
