Frenchs Forest: Graffiti vandals risking death 5m above Warringah Rd, Forest Way intersection

Vandals who daub ugly criminal graffiti 5m above a busy Sydney road junction — some of which has been in place for 12 months — are risking their lives on narrow ledge.

For 12 months a frustrated member of Northern Beaches Council has been pushing for the NSW Government to clean up unsightly and criminal graffiti vandalism from above one of the area’s busiest road junctions.

Liberal councillor Stuart Sprott fears a person on a spray-painting spree could be killed or seriously injured if they fell while vandalising a raised pedestrian path at the intersection of Warringah Rd and Forest Way at Frenchs Forest.

Graffiti on glass panels along a pedestrian walkway above the multi-lane roadway at the intersection of Warringah Rd and Forest Way at Frenchs Forest. There are concerns graffiti vandals could fall onto the roadway. Picture: Jim O'Rourke

Some of the illegal graffiti and tags on the glass panels, installed to prevent people from falling into the intersection, are up to 5m above the multi-lane road.

Cr Sprott said graffiti, along the section of the new Warringah Rd widening project aimed at easing traffic snarls around Northern Beaches Hospital, had been in place for more than a year.

Vandals risk serious injury when they climb over a 1.5m fence, then walk along a narrow 60cm-wide ledge, above the intersection, to complete their criminal activity.

Cr Sprott has been urging the council’s Local Traffic Committee, which includes a representative from Transport for NSW (TfNSW), to lobby for the issue to be sorted out.

Graffiti on a glass panel above the multi-lane roadway at the intersection of Warringah Rd and Forest Way at Frenchs Forest. Graffiti vandalism has not been cleaned away from the location despite repeated requests to the NSW Government that go back 12 months. Picture: Jim O'Rourke

“I’ve been told that the NSW Government is reluctant to clean the graffiti up because it would mean working at height, on that ledge, and that Warringah Rd would have to be closed.

“If it’s too dangerous to clean it, then it’s got to be too dangerous for the kids up their graffitiing it.

Ugly graffiti on glass panels along a pedestrian walkway above the intersection of Warringah Rd and Forest Way at Frenchs Forest. Picture: Jim O'Rourke

“It’s obviously a design fault that allows them to get out onto that ledge and spraypaint.”

Cr Sprott successfully moved a motion at the council’s June meeting that it write to the NSW Government to highlight the dangers associated with graffiti and tagging on the walkway at the corner of Warringah Rd and Forest Way — managed by TfNSW — and ask transport authorities to investigate ways to make the area safe.

A 60cm wide ledge that graffiti vandals have been using to spray paint on to glass panels along a pedestrian walkway above the intersection of Warringah Rd and Forest Way at Frenchs Forest. Picture: Jim O'Rourke

The council has also asked TfNSW to remove the graffiti from the “state road areas”.

“Appropriate fencing needs to be installed to stop the vandals from reaching the glass panels,” Cr Sprott said.

Northern Beaches Councillor Stuart Sprott. “Someone coud die”. Picture: Adam Yip/ Manly Daily

“Otherwise someone is going to slip and fall.

“Someone could die”.

Transport for NSW has been contacted for comment.