Adelaide City Council graffiti clean up time blows out to six weeks
It used to take between seven to 14 days. Now, because of COVID, the Adelaide City Council is taking around six weeks to clean up graffiti – angering at least one resident.
City
Don't miss out on the headlines from City. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Graffiti removal has blown out from two weeks to six weeks in the city, with COVID being blamed for the delays.
The Adelaide City Council has confirmed the standard response time to clean up general graffiti has gone from seven to 14 days to 45 to 50 days.
Its public realm associate director, Gary Herdegen, said a crew was continuing to respond to offensive or politically-themed graffiti within 24 hours.
However, general graffiti was taking several weeks to get removed.
“Due to the impacts of COVID on resources, the response times and work schedules were revised,” he said.
“The standard response time is now approximately up to 45 days for general graffiti removal requests.
“Priority is given to the removal of graffiti in the public realm that is deemed offensive or political, with a turnaround time of approximately 24 hours.”
Mr Hergeden said council staff were working “as best they can to remove graffiti in a timely manner”.
The delay was raised by an inner city resident, who lodged a report with the council last week about graffiti sprayed on a building on the corner of Royal Place and Pulteney St.
In an emailed response, the council’s customer services department said the request for removal “has been forwarded onto our graffiti removal team for actioning”.
“Please note, the current turn around time for these requests is up to 45-50 working days.”
The resident, who asked not be named, said she was “taken aback” when she got the email from the council.
“Wasn’t there once a policy of graffiti removal inside of 24 or 48 hours in order to stop expansion of this kind of vandalism,” she said.
“A current turn around time of 45 to 50 working days seems a bit outrageous to me.
“It makes me wonder whether this delay is related to the council deciding to let many of its staff go or problems it has with its budget.”
Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said there had been an increase in graffiti during the pandemic.
“Our city cleansing crews have been focused on COVID related cleaning of the city as there was a spike in the number of graffiti incidents in the city,” she said.
“As such it’s taking longer for the teams to get to new reports.”
Ms Verschoor said most graffiti was on privately-owned buildings and property, which owners had the responsibility to remove.
“However, council assists and ensures that the vandalism is addressed,” she said.
“We will continue to work closely with SAPOL in a focused attempt to control the instances of vandalism.”
The most recent urgent response to graffiti was to the vandalisation of Rundle Mall’s four bronze pigs – Horatio, Oliver, Augusta and Truffles – which were sprayed with corrosive paint last month.
A 65-year-old man has been arrested over the attack and bailed to appear in court next January.