17 May 2021
More Action to Stop Tagging Needed Say Green Party Councillors
Green Party councillors have once again highlighted the need to deal with the problem of tagging, especially of historic buildings in the city centre.
The issue was made a community policing priority at the most recent Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel (SNAP) meeting which comprised of Green Party councillors from Thorpe Hamlet and Mancroft wards, and the police’s Norwich East Safer Neighbourhood Team (NESNT).
Thorpe Hamlet councillor, Ben Price, has been the chair of the Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel, which covers the city centre, for the last three years.
Councillor Price said:
“This priority was set after I launched the “One Report Walk“, encouraging residents to report one piece of anti-social behaviour, such as fly-tipping or graffiti to the relevant authorities last year. The proliferation of graffiti in the city centre has been a big issue since the beginning of the pandemic. Our One Report Walk campaign is a way for us all to tackle the problem directly.
“I’m also pleased to see positive results after Green councillors persuaded the police to make tackling graffiti one of their community policing priorities earlier this year.
“It’s great to see that Norwich City Council will be working with Norwich BID to clean up the city centre, and I would encourage everybody to help by reporting anti-social behaviour directly to the police and the council.”
Councillor Martin Schmierer, who represents Mancroft Ward, which covers most of the city centre, said:
“It breaks my heart to see Norwich’s historic buildings, in particular, being defaced in this way. I and my Green Party colleagues welcome the fact that the local police have made graffitti a neighbourhood policing priority, but it is important people report it to both the police and the council. When graffiti is causing criminal damage it should be reported as such.
“However, residents reporting graffiti is only part of the solution. That’s why Green Party councillors are calling for the council to provide more public art spaces and murals which could serve as an outlet for genuine graffiti street artists and discourage more unsightly ‘tagging’.
“There is a big distinction between a graffiti artist down in the West Pottergate underpass or under the Magdalen Street flyover who actually spends time creating an urban form of art and the defacing of churches or historic buildings.”
