KEY POINTS:
The launch of a multi-agency showcase for beautifying the West Auckland railway corridor on Sunday began with a wipeout of graffiti but ended in a washout.
As teams of Corrections community work offenders rolled on litres of fresh white paint over a heavily tagged retaining wall, they had to sprint for shelter as a sudden rain squall struck.
Through the van windows, they watched disappointedly as 40 minutes' painting went down the gurgler.
"A huge rain storm came and it didn't let up and it washed all the paint off," said Corrections' Waitakere service manager, Karl Bethell.
"But we'll back next Sunday, if it's fine, and do it again."
The workers are using recycled paint, which is supplied free.
The trial project is using people, including taggers, sentenced to community work as reparation.
Two teams of seven are to give up eight hours of their Sundays for three months in the cleaning-up of a notorious 3km stretch of line through Henderson.
Waitakere City Council, Ontrack, Corrections Department and Auckland Region Graffiti Free Project are partners in the trial.
It is being funded by Graffiti Free Project, which was set up to deal with graffiti vandalism by the police and Auckland's seven councils and has funding from the Ministry of Justice crime prevention unit.
Auckland City Council, which spends $1.8 million a year on dealing with graffiti, is taking a keen interest in the trial.
It could lead to development of further community work programmes to clean up Auckland's worst tagging spots and not only those along the railway corridor.
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey and the city's Tag Out Trust are calling for a Youth Reparation Court, where offenders would appear before a justice of the peace within 48 hours and be given instant fines and assigned community work hours to be spent painting out graffiti.
