Croydon’s Executive Mayor, Jason Perry, will outline his approach to tackling graffiti across the borough at next week’s Cabinet meeting, delivering on a key manifesto pledge for residents.
An increase in graffiti has been seen across local neighbourhoods in recent years, impacting on the image of Croydon and costing thousands of pounds to residents, businesses, and the council.
Under the new graffiti removal service, additional resource will be focused where it is needed most, prioritising illegal, antisocial, and offensive graffiti across the borough.
This service was previously stopped as part of council savings but is being prioritised by Mayor Perry in recognition of the of the negative impact graffiti has on quality of life for residents and businesses.
To minimise cost to the council, any additional services will be commissioned through existing contracts and drawn from earmarked Streets & Neighbourhoods funding.
The new service will allow for ‘blitz’ clean-ups, working together with property owners, to remove graffiti on all surfaces in particular areas. This is intended to maximise local impact, reduce low-level crime, and help residents and businesses to thrive.
The council is also developing proposals for better graffiti prevention, including an anti-graffiti coating service and advice on how to protect against vandalism for businesses. It will also explore how it can support local neighbourhood groups already working to clean up their local area.
Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon, said:
“Graffiti gives the wrong impression of Croydon as a place where we do not care about our streets and local areas. As Croydonians, we know that this is absolutely not the case and graffiti cannot continue to affect the quality of life across our neighbourhoods.
“Delivering on a key manifesto pledge, we will be putting additional resource behind cleaning up our streets and tackling the ‘broken window’ effects of graffiti. Targeting graffiti is just one part of our wider work to restore pride in Croydon – I remain firmly committed to rebuilding the image of Croydon as the attractive place to live, work, and visit, that we know it to be.”
