Last week was London Graffiti Awareness Week (8 – 12 October) and Lewisham staff were out and about busy cleaning up the borough.
Graffiti Awareness Week is a dedicated week of targeting graffiti prevention and removal. Lewisham takes a tough line on graffiti, which is a blight on the environment and can attract anti-social behaviour.
This year, Lewisham staff targeted 20 shops and businesses in SE13 and SE14 for graffiti removal from shop windows and shutters. They also applied a special anti-graffiti coating, which enables graffiti to be cleaned off much more easily, using soap and water. This means that shops and businesses can deal with the problem themselves straight away, rather than having unsightly graffiti tarnishing their business image.
Councillor Susan Wise, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said: “Residents and businesses want the area to look a nice as possible, as a place to live and a place to work.
“Graffiti makes a place look uninviting and attracts anti-social behaviour. We want Lewisham to be the best place to live, work and learn and so we’re putting in a lot of effort to make sure it stays that way.
“Graffiti Awareness Week has meant that many businesses have benefited from having a clean up, making them a more appealing to customers and residents.”
Lewisham takes graffiti so seriously in 2005 it set up a dedicated service where people can report graffiti simply and easily to the Council.
Using the 'Love Lewisham' site you can text or email photo’s of graffiti, fly-tipping and fly-posting. You can send digital photos of graffiti using your phone or home computer. The images will be logged on the Love Lewisham website to be targeted for removal. A second photo will be added to the website showing that the graffiti has been removed. Staff can also contact you to tell you that the graffiti has been removed, if you want to be directly informed. Visit www.lovelewisham.org.
The Love Lewisham project has been so successful that it has already national recognition with a New Statesmen New Media Award, winning the 'Modernising Government' category in 2006, for use of mobile technology to tackle fly-tipping and graffiti.
The scheme has also inspired other councils to introduce their own schemes.
- Ends -
Please contact Zoe Davies for photo’s showing businesses that had shop fronts cleaned during Graffiti Awareness Week.
Last year Lewisham Council removed 26,312 square metres of graffiti, at a cost of £355,575.
It usually takes about three hours to remove graffiti from a shop shutter, using specialised equipment.
The national campaign is led by Capital Standards, an organisation set up to improve the cleanliness of London for those who live, work or visit the Capital. For more information go to www.capitalstandards.com .Capital Standards works in partnership with 28 London authorities, the Environment Agency, the Mayor of London, the Metropolitan Police Authority and Transport for London.
For more information about this press release please contact:
Zoe Davies
Media Relations Officer
London Borough of Lewisham
T: 020 8314 9042
M: 07841 733759
W: www.lewisham.gov.uk