Croydon residents planning to protest at Maroondah Council meetings over bridge graffiti

A CROYDON man says he and a group of residents will protest at Maroondah Council meetings because of graffiti on a railway bridge.

Residents are planning to protest at Maroondah Council meetings because of this graffiti on the railway bridge on Mount Dandenong Rd in Croydon.

A CROYDON man is planning to bombard Maroondah Council meetings with protests because of graffiti on the Mt Dandenong Rd railway bridge.

Eddie Kozlowski, who lives near the bridge, said he and other ratepayers would attend meetings with placards targeting chief executive Steve Kozlowski (no relation).

The graffiti has been there for about four years but conjecture remains over who is responsible for cleaning it up.

In May, Mayor Tony Dib wrote to Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan to express disappointment after “multiple requests” to government agencies to remove the graffiti had been ignored.

VicTrack owns the bridge but claims it is not responsible for its maintenance, while Metro Trains said it was did not clean graffiti more than 50m from a station platform.

But some Croydon residents and business owners claim the council should be doing more to force authorities to act.

Eddie said the chief executive had power through the Road Management Act to serve notice on responsible authorities to do the works, or to draw up a legal agreement between council and VicTrack.

Eddie Kozlowski (left) is planning to protest at Maroondah Council meetings over graffiti on the Mt Dandenong Rd rail bridge. Picture: Christopher Chan.

“Everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else. The only person who can do anything is the CEO,” he said.

“If our CEO doesn’t know how to handle the legislation, he should go to the council lawyers. The legislation is there, but it hasn’t been acted upon.”

But in a statement, Cr Dib said the council did not have power under the Act and claimed Metro Trains was responsible for cleaning the graffiti.

Cr Dib said Ms Allan had responded to his letter late last month, stating Metro Trains was only obligated to remove graffiti outside a station precinct if it was offensive in nature.

“Any direction to Metro Trains to undertake graffiti removal works from the Mt Dandenong Road railway bridge would need to be initiated by, and established with, the Victorian Government,” he said.

“Council will continue to advocate to the Victorian Government, and Metro Trains, on behalf of the community to remove the graffiti on the railway bridge.”

Regardless, Eddie said the group would be “out in force” in the public gallery at council meetings from next month.

The Croydon Chamber of Commerce and Croydon Main Street Traders Association have stated they would not join the protests, but supported the group’s efforts to get the graffiti cleaned up.

Association president Andrew King accused the council of “handballing the problem” to other agencies.

“They could be pushing it harder and, as a group, we have complained to (the) council that it’s ugly and unsightly and should be cleaned up,” he said.

Chamber treasurer Gail Woods said the graffiti was an eyesore.

“It certainly needs to be resolved and somebody needs to make some decisions about doing it,” she said.

Sacha Fenton, spokeswoman for Ms Allan’s office, did not respond directly to questions about the graffiti.