KEN LEE reports from Thornton Heath on a piece of anti-social messaging that just won’t go away
Paint job: Mayor Jason Perry is quick to take credit for graffiti ‘blitzes’. But the reality on the streets is far different
Offensive graffiti on two council signs on Blakemore Road in Thornton Heath that include the “C” word, and which dozens of primary aged children have to walk past on their way to and from school each day, has been left uncleaned by Croydon Council despite being reported multiple times by residents and ward councillors over the course of almost two months.
Jason Perry, Croydon’s Tory Mayor, had promised that offensive graffiti, especially if found on sensitive sites (such as close to a primary school), would be removed within just 48 hours.
Perry’s special contractors, FM Conway, have had at least one attempt at removing the wording in question, but have so far failed in their task, managing just to smudge the recognisable four-letter word. The latest effort to resolve the issue, this week has been to use a black bin bag to cover the offending words, which include “Ass” and a word that rhymes with the surname of Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Chancellor.
Soon after being elected, Croydon’s part-time Mayor and full-time cheerleader for Tory election candidate Chris Philp, announced a £500,000 budget to deal with offensive graffiti, after the service had been victim of the first-round of budget cuts following the council going bust.
You can’t really miss this: but the council’s contractors did
Perry has frequently donned hard hat and hi-viz jackets for photo ops at occasional “blitzes” around the borough against tags and other graffiti. “Tackling graffiti is an important part of cleaning up our streets to make them better for our residents and businesses. We must restore pride in our communities, and that starts by making their high streets, parks and public spaces clean, safe and as attractive as possible.
On the council’s website, this graffiti clear-up has been characterised as “delivering on a key manifesto pledge for residents”.
The plan was to distinguish between defacing and unsightly graffiti, and street art.
“Under the new graffiti removal service, additional resource will be focused where it is needed most, prioritising illegal, anti-social, and offensive graffiti across the borough.”
But parents with small children have been furious at the council’s lack of action over the “C” bomb dropped on one busy street corner.
Council cover-up: having failed to clean or replace the sign, this is the contractors’ best effort
“I’ve had enough of Croydon Council’s incompetence,” said one angry parent, whose children pass the council signs (including a warning against fly-tipping, something else that the council fails to deal with) every day.
“Someone please get a grip and have the sign cleaned or removed,” they wrote. “This is just an utter embarrassment.”
The offensive graffiti was first reported to Croydon Council on May 8, and was subject to repeat complaints every few days thereafter, right through until this week.
When Conway did show up, they managed to clean one of the graffiti’d signs, but somehow never noticed the other similarly defaced, spray-painted sign just up the street.
In an email last Friday, one council operative, on the receiving end of some of the messages of complaint, tried to explain the gormlessness: “The council’s contractor, FM Conway, attended site on Wednesday this week and cleaned the sign on the concrete fence, and unfortunately, they did not clean the graffiti on the council sign attached to the side wall of 120 Gonville Road (corner of Blakemore Road)…”.
The council official admitted that the graffiti had been reported multiple times, with photos helpfully attached (so there was no real reason for anyone to miss it): “I can only apologise for this oversight, which I have discussed with senior management in FM Conway, and they have assured me that the sign attached to 120 Gonville Road will be cleaned today, along with any other graffiti in Blakemore Road that they identify.
“With respect to why this was not picked up sooner, the reason is that we are working through a backlog of graffiti reports. We have engaged an additional contractor to help up clear this backlog and all outstanding offensive graffiti reports will be cleaned by the end of next week.”
Promises, promises…
Local residents were suitably underwhelmed. “If this is the standard your contractors are working to, I suggest you review their contract.”
Council clean-up: the Jubilee Bridge Underpass used £10,000 to commission this mural in 2012. Perry’s council had it painted over this year
Having been defeated by the persistent paint on the council sign, this week the contractors opted for another council cover-up. The plastic bag is kept in place by nothing more than a bit of sticky tape.
“Not sure that this is much of an improvement,” said the slightly less angry resident, who told Inside Croydon that they suspect it is only a matter of time before the bag is ripped off.
Meanwhile, across in Old Town, where there has been a mural in the Jubilee Bridge underpass celebrating connections with the River Wandle (which is culverted below the six-lane urban motorway that races above), there’s been another bit of vandalism.
This time the vandalism has been committed by the council.
The mural was commissioned in 2012 with £10,000 of riot recovery fund (remember that?). Remarkably, the mural had lasted for more than a decade almost untouched, with only the occasional tag.
This year, someone at the council decided to emulsion over the whole thing, leaving a marvellous blank canvas for anyone with a spray can. Another work of genius from Croydon’s piss-poor Mayor Perry!
Read more: Council’s multi-million consultant deals to make more cuts
Read more: Croydon’s fly-tip prosecution record is 2nd worst in all England
Read more: Residents’ despair over vile fly-tips, including a pig’s head
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