30 Jul 2012

Council sets new anti-graffiti target

12:38 pm on 30 July 2012

A new deadline is being set by Auckland Council for contractors to get rid of offensive graffiti within two hours of a complaint being made.

In the 2010/2011 financial year, the council spent about $4.8 million getting rid of graffiti from more tha 340,000 sites across the region.

Auckland mayor Len Brown says he wants damaged sites to be clean up within two hours of a complaint being made via the council's hotline.

The target only applies to offensive tagging, and other graffiti has to be cleaned up within 24-hours.

The main focus of the plan is on prevention of vandalism though it also brings in a new set of guidelines to deal with the tagging that does occur.

Mr Brown will launch the plan on Tuesday at a rugby league club in Otara that has run a successful programme to encourage taggers to paint murals instead of graffiti.

Since the club started the project, there has been a dramatic reduction of graffiti in the area.