LAWRENCE GULLERY
Hastings has stepped up its fight against graffiti after finance has come through for three new initiatives to combat the crime around the district.
The Keep Hastings Beautiful Trust and Hastings District Council were awarded funding from the Crime Prevention Units small initiatives fund at the Justice Ministry. It will help pay for graffiti clean-up kits free to neighbourhoods, schools and businesses regularly hit by graffiti.
The money will also go towards soda-blasting graffiti off sites which were of significant cultural or social importance to Hastings.
And it will fund a two-pronged graffiti education programme in the district.
The 200 small clean-up kits, for residents, and 100 big kits, for schools and businesses, contain Citrus Blast (a biodegradable cleaner), gloves, cloths and instructions, with a scrubbing brush included in the big kits. The kits were worth $18.50 for the small and $33.50 for the large ones.
The council's environment enhancement officer, Jacqui Barnes, said the idea was one person in each graffiti-prone street would hold a kit so it could be used by the community.
"This is about taking care of our own neighbourhoods and it's been proven rapid removal is the key to combating graffiti," Ms Barnes said.
The Crime Prevention Units also granted $3000 for soda-blasting important sites and the first of those, the historic bus stop outside the gates of Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital, was cleaned today.
The education programme received $150,000 over three years from the Justice Ministry, under the Stop Tagging Our Place strategy. The Hastings council was one of 35 to apply to the pool and just 12 were granted funding.
It was hoped the two-week programme (10 per year) developed for primary schools, would be taught in 16 schools in its first year. The second part of the education programme was aimed at encouraging offenders to attend a voluntary six-week compressor-spray art course.
They would explore job opportunities, health and safety as well as talking about why they committed the graffiti crime. At the end of the course offenders would construct a mural for areas worst hit by graffiti.
Ms Barnes said the council was meeting the community four times a year to talk about progress on its strategy.
"Recent arrests show this approach was working and these initiatives are putting Hastings on the map for leading the charge in the fight against graffiti," she said.
Funds boost Hastings' fight against graffiti
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