Graffiti blights Olympic Torch route through Oxford (From Oxford Mail)
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Graffiti blights Olympic Torch route through Oxford
10:10am Thursday 7th June 2012 in News By Laura Jones
Graffiti blights Olympic Torch route through Oxford
AS the 2012 Olympic Torch weaves its way through Oxford next month it will travel along a route defaced by graffiti tags and spray paint.
It will start in Blackbird Leys on July 9 and make its way through Cowley and East Oxford before finishing in South Park. The next day it will pass along Iffley Road and Donnington Bridge.
But as it travels along Oxford Road, Cowley, the torch will pass shop shutters daubed in spray paint, before continuing along Cowley Road where clean-up teams are forced to check every day for fresh vandalism.
It will finish its journey in South Park where a graffiti plastered public toilet block blights the view.
Each year Oxford City Council spends £100,000 removing graffiti.
John Tanner, city executive board member for a Cleaner, Greener Oxford, said: “We need to have another anti-graffiti campaign.
“It is not acceptable to deface one of the most beautiful cities in the world, especially in an Olympic year.
“What annoys me is that the general public have to pay for the graffiti of the few.”
Andrew Wright, a city council street scene supervisor, said his team had reports of 100 pieces of graffiti in 55 different locations last month.
But he said when he added in smaller amounts of graffiti tackled on an ad-hoc basis the number probably doubled.
He said: “It is a perennial problem – we will never stop it entirely. Where there are certain hotspots where we know it is going to crop up we’ve given crews instructions to do daily checks.
“We check Cowley Road on a daily basis, there are certain areas around Rose Hill we check on a daily basis too. We keep records of the graffiti we removed and we do have a graffiti database.”
The council does not charge businesses for the removal of graffiti and when racist or offensive slogans are sprayed it pledges to remove the vandalism within 24 hours.
Thames Valley Police acting superintendent Chris Sharp, Oxford area commander, said: “Graffiti does come in trends when offenders feel they are getting an audience. We always look to prosecute.”
No figures are available for successful prosecutions as graffiti is formally classified as criminal damage.
But convictions are difficult to achieve as the recent case of SOAK graffiti tagger Charlie Silver in Oxford showed.
The 20-year-old was fined £100 in February after he admitted to one of four crimes he was charged with.
The remaining three counts were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
John Chappell, acting district crown prosecutor, said: “What we have to prove is that no one else was using the same tag.”
Peter Thompson, of Oxford Civic Society, said: “The sort of graffiti we see does damage the image of the city and that’s one of the reasons it’s very unfortunate. I would give some credit to the city council in cleaning it up, because in my experience they have done a very good job.”
Comments(17)
Darkforbid
says...
10:34am Thu 7 Jun 12
jonny1976
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10:37am Thu 7 Jun 12
Paul0
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12:17pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Dilligaf2010
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12:41pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Darkforbid
says...
12:52pm Thu 7 Jun 12
online_reader
says...
2:00pm Thu 7 Jun 12
online_reader
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2:12pm Thu 7 Jun 12
rust.org.uk/things-t
o-see-and-do/view-pa
ge/item847989/290343
/
famalam
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4:19pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Headington_angel
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4:23pm Thu 7 Jun 12
iklhik
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6:46pm Thu 7 Jun 12
famalam wrote:Some graffiti can be good but almost all the stuff in Oxford is just tags - mainly done by knuckle-dragging simpletons.
Graffiti makes my day that bit brighter every time I walk by it. I really cannot understand the perspective of someone who hates graffiti; what possible harm is it doing?
Fantomas
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11:03pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Dilligaf2010 wrote:Banksy's a sell out
We haven't got any Banksy art here yet have we, obviously he doesn't consider Oxford to be worthy of his talents.
Dilligaf2010
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11:37pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Fantomas wrote:Maybe so, but he's good at what he does.
Dilligaf2010 wrote:Banksy's a sell out
We haven't got any Banksy art here yet have we, obviously he doesn't consider Oxford to be worthy of his talents.
Julius_Zsako
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4:42am Fri 8 Jun 12
com. Graffiti control experts would note that the graffiti shown in the photograph with this article appears to have accumulated over time. By leaving tags and other graffiti up for weeks or longer, you provide the graffiti vandals with the visibility they crave. You also tell other graffiti writers that this is a great place to do graffiti.
Mike Billson
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1:20am Mon 11 Jun 12
Dilligaf2010
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1:53am Mon 11 Jun 12
Mike Billson wrote:I like you way of thinking :)
Perhaps someone should try spraying the word "Pepsi" over the affected areas, and *then* see how long it takes to be cleaned up...
Dr bob is my hero
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8:50pm Mon 11 Jun 12
Dilligaf2010 wrote:Mr Tanner has today said that the graffiti pictured can stay. His reason being that it is out of the way, and that it was sprayed as a memorial to the poor youth that drowned nearby. So does that mean we can all spray paint Oxford as a memorial to our friends that have passed away?
Mike Billson wrote:I like you way of thinking :)
Perhaps someone should try spraying the word "Pepsi" over the affected areas, and *then* see how long it takes to be cleaned up...
WitneyGreen says...
10:25am Thu 7 Jun 12