Melbourne CBD to deploy rapid response graffiti team to clean-up vandalism

A rapid response emergency graffiti clean-up team, available 24-hour a day, seven days a week, are being deployed to scour Melbourne’s CBD.

There will be a 24/7 graffiti team responding to vandalism throughout the Melbourne CBD.

Rapid response teams will target Melbourne graffiti around the clock and clean hotspots within three days instead of 12 amid an overhaul of the city’s rubbish removal scheme.

A major shake up of the way rubbish and graffiti are swept from city streets will be announced on Monday, in a move expected to add some much needed shine to the CBD.

Changes to the City of Melbourne’s municipality-wide cleaning contract will for the first time see street cleaning and graffiti management operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Emergency “rapid response clean team’’ times will be cut from two hours to a one-hour target and a fleet of 10 new electric cleaning vehicles to scour city streets will be introduced.

Acting Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said Melbourne was “scrubbing up as we take our cleaning efforts to the next level.”

Hosier Lane, Melbourne.

“We are throwing everything and the kitchen sink at city cleanliness,’’ he said.

“Under the new plan Melburnians can expect to see boots on the ground 24 hours a day, seven days a week – the work of keeping Melbourne clean will literally never stop.’’

The council’s current street cleaning services contract with Spotless ends on January 1 and a graffiti management deal with Calcorp expires at the end of March.

A new deal with company Clean City Services will see 24 hour, daily street cleaning, graffiti removal and pressure washing delivered.

Graffiti management in the city now only operates from 7am-3pm, Monday to Friday.

Mr Reece said the “turbocharged’’ one hour response time to remove graffiti once reported was unprecedented.

Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece. Picture: David Caird

“Melbourne has never seen anything like a one hour graffiti removal service,’’ he said.

“The best deterrent to crack down on repeat offenders is to remove graffiti as soon as possible – and that’s why we’re increasing patrols around the clock with a 100 per cent new fleet of clean up vehicles.”

The new five year contract with an option to extend for another five years will start in April, at a cost of $233.6 million over 10 years.

The council expects to save $2.6 million in the first financial year of the new contracts.

“We know that a clean city is one that appeals to everyone, which is why this new policy is a win for residents, businesses and visitors alike,’’ Mr Reece said.

Hotspot pressure washing in dirty and graffiti hit areas, including laneways would be daily under the new deal.

New technology to be used under the new cleaning regime is estimated to reduce the council’s annual fuel consumption by more than 100,000 litres or the equivalent of 265 tonnes of greenhouse emissions per year.