A string of complaints about graffiti on a Staffordshire canal bridge led to all the offensive words being removed – but the remaining scrawl was left behind due to “budget constraints”, a move which has left the community enraged.
Staffordshire County Councillor Matthew Ellis has branded the move “jobsworth bureaucracy gone mad”. He said the Government-funded agency British Waterways had wasted taxpayers’ money by only removing selected parts of the graffiti from the bridge in Bonehill, Lichfield.
Councillor Ellis, who represents Lichfield Rural East, said: “Most of the cost of removing graffiti is getting a team on site to do it.
“To get there and spend time selecting which bits are offensive and then removing only those, leaving everything else, is jobsworth bureaucracy gone mad. It’s completely bonkers.”
The defaced bridge is part of a well-used route used by dozens of walkers every day.
But Councillor Ellis said there is concern in the area that as the site falls further into disrepair it will attract anti-social behaviour and more vandalism.
He said that by scrubbing off only parts of the graffiti British Waterways was sending out the wrong message.
“At what point did vandalism of this sort become acceptable as long as it’s not too offensive?” Councillor Ellis asked.
“Whether it be vandalism, antisocial behaviour or loutish drunkenness, as a society we need to send a clear signal that this sort of thing will not be tolerated or condoned.
“In this case a publicly funded organisation has failed to do that.”
British Waterways West Midlands said it aimed to remove any racially or sexually offensive graffiti within 24 hours.
It sent out workers employed on the canal banks armed with special graffiti wipes.
The remaining markings get added to a list of work to be carried out by the agency. Annabel Smith, communications executive for British Waterways West Midlands, said calling someone out to remove all graffiti on a 24-hour basis would require funds the organisation does not have.
“We’re not saying we are not going to clear the rest, it gets put into a planned maintenance programme.”
“In the West Midlands alone we spent £200,000 on graffiti removal last year. It’s a never-ending battle, as soon as we remove graffiti from somewhere it’s like a blank canvas and it gets covered again.
“We do get out there as soon as we can,” she added.
5 Comments
What a bunch of F#$%^&*( T*&^%$s. If I cleaned the windscreen of the company vehicles and left the rest dirty I would be driven straight down Unemployment Alley by my manager. Do your job properly and don’t make lame excuses bozos.
So a team travels to remove the obscenities one day, then a team travels another day to remove the rest of the words. Is this good management of manpower, fuel, and money? I dont think so!
The government has made huge cuts in its funding for British Waterways over
the last few years. BW is seriously underfunded and recently had to make 180
job cuts. They don’t have the resources or manpower to come and clean off
all the graffiti at short notice. They pulled someone off another job to remove
the most offensive words and will deal with the rest later. Would the sneerers
have preferred BW to have left the offensive words there until they had time to
clean the whole bridge?
It is all too easy for journalists to make this sound like it is all BW’s fault.
Councillor Ellis is directing his anger at the wrong targets. Why isn’t he
criticising the yobbos living in his constituency who have caused the
damages, or the parents who don’t care where their children are at night or
what they are doing?
I’m surprised at Councillor Harris’s comments. Let’s get down to basics. The statutory responsibility of British Waterways is to keep the navigation open, not clean up after vandals who spray grafitti.
Let’s face it. It was probably local youths that created the grafitti and that suggests to me that the local council is responsible for clearing up.
Government has made swingeing cuts to British Waterways budgets over the past three years to the extent that they only have around £100 million to maintain 2,200 miles of waterways that need £125 million just to keep them in steady state. Under such difficult financial constraints I am not surprised that they have saved money by removing only the the offensive parts of the graffiti.
I think Councillor Harris should be thanking BW for doing what should be his council’s responsibility.
Regards
Will Chapman
Chairman, Save Our Waterways
http://www.saveourwaterways.org
I am not surprised by this typical Tory tactic of trying to divert blame. This is NOT BW’s problem; the councillor should be demanding to know why the yobs are allowed free rein on his patch and why aren’t the police on the streets doing their job.