By LAURA WAKELY
BRIMBANK City Council hopes a new graffiti policy will stop street art being destroyed.
The move comes after construction workers accidentally destroyed an artwork in Prahran by internationally acclaimed graffiti artist Banksy last week.
Two other Banksy works have also been destroyed, with one vandalised in Fitzroy last year and another painted over in the city in 2010.
Brimbank Council’s new policy aims to support opportunities for “positive and vibrant” public art projects, while protecting the rights of property owners to keep their buildings free of tagging, profanity and hate-orientated images.
Administrator Meredith Sussex said the policy tried to create a “reasoned and cost-effective approach” for dealing with graffiti, which she said was an issue raised “every single time” administrators met with residents.
“It’s an incredibly difficult issue for council to deal with,” Ms Sussex said.
“But it (policy) does try and ensure that if we have Banksy come and do some time in Brimbank, then we don’t just scrub it off.”
In the 2012-2013 Budget, Community Wellbeing general manager Kelly Grigsby said council would allocate $214,000 on graffiti removal, but also spend $5000 on aerosol art projects.
Another $6000 will be spent on education, including keeping young people informed about the consequences of illegal graffiti, and communicating ways of letting residents know about how to report graffiti.
Ms Grigsby said the presence of graffiti in public spaces can affect a person’s perceptions of “cleanliness, amenity and quality of the physical environment and safety”.
Council records show reports of graffiti have grown from 30 per month in 2008 to more than 50 per month in 2010.
In the last financial year 46.6 per cent of graffiti removal expenditure was spent in the Deer Park district while 27.6 per cent was spent in the Sunshine
district.
