New plan to tackle graffiti problem
November 6, 2007 1:46 PM
Hereward Cooke
The Liberal Democrat Group on Norwich City Council is pushing for the Council to take action to tackle the problem of graffiti in Norwich. The plan involves making sure the Council is fully using powers at its disposal to remove graffiti by entering into local partnership arrangements with utilities companies.
Whilst Norwich is rightly promoting itself as a tourist and visitor destination and has been rewarded by visits from thousands of people eager to see what the City has to offer. There is one aspect of the City that casts it in a negative light and which needs improving; the presence of graffiti on cabinets belonging to the public utilities, such as telephone, water, cable and electricity companies.
Councillor Hereward Cooke, leader of the Liberal Democrats at City Hall, has discovered that there is legislation in place to improve the situation. It is permissible for a local authority to enter into a partnership with the public utilities enabling a joint programme of graffiti clearance to be undertaken. Under the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003, and the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 Councils have the powers to report graffiti to the owners of public utility cabinets and to remove such offending graffiti at no cost to the local authority if the owners have not done so.
He says: "The volume of graffiti on these cabinets across the City is a disgrace. It lowers the quality of life for visitors and residents alike and gives the impression that the public image of the City is not being cared for as much as it could be. The Government has given us the powers, and the Council ought to be implementing them. They would transform the face of Norwich."
The move builds on the steps the Liberal Democrat administration took to raise the profile of Norwich as an attractive place in which to live, work and visit.
The question at Council will ask the Labour administration at City Hall as to why such partnership arrangements could not now be implemented.
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