Upsurge in graffiti and vandalism

WANGANUI has been hit by a new wave of tagging and vandalism, and some of it is happening in broad daylight.
Mainstreet Wanganui operations manager Ritchie Minnell said that in the past six weeks incidents of tagging and wilful damage of property had picked up again, with some areas being hit while it was still light.
Last weekend the Victoria Ave toilets were cleaned of graffiti up to three times, despite being closed at night from 6pm.
The toilets were hit on Saturday afternoon between cleanings and Mr Minnell could follow the taggers' pathway through Majestic Square and to the back of Farmers.
Two weeks ago, "every door and window" of Wicksteed Tce buildings was also tagged, with the museum, a vet club, bus shelters, signs, power boxes, letterboxes, cars, and fences around the city also hit.
About 10 public toilets had also been hit by taggers or their cisterns had been kicked in and bowls smashed, he said.
The damage had been especially bad in central Wanganui, but Castlecliff, Wanganui East, Aramoho and Durie Hill were also affected, he said.
Mainstreet had spent at least $4000 in the past month on cleaning up graffiti and Mr Minnell estimated the contractor's painter spent between seven and 10 hours each week, painting over tagging.
Mr Minnell said he spent up to 10 hours each week removing graffiti from concrete with solvent and had taken an average of 30 photos each week for his tagging database.
Taggers who had been caught were aged between 10 and 24 and were ordinary kids from ordinary families, Mr Minnell said.
Girls were also very prominent in the local tagging scene, with three 14-year-olds particularly active, he said.
These taggers did not see what they were doing as wrong.
One tagger had even asked people why they were worried, as there were people paid to clean it off.
"It's just part of their culture&the; majority of it's hip hop; there's a little bit of gang stuff there," he said.
"It looks unsightly, people feel threatened by it especially the elderly and it's wilful damage. It costs time and money to get rid of it."
Although stopping the sale of spray-paint in Wanganui had been effective, taggers had now begun to use liquid nugget and marker pens.
It was difficult to stop taggers, because they had to be caught or filmed in the act, and court proceedings seldom yielded sufficient reparation costs to cover the damage.
This year the Wanganui District Council had allocated $50,000 to clean up graffiti, but the policies of its anti-tagging taskforce were on hold pending a Government bill.
Wanganui Police senior sergeant Mark Chillingworth said tagging was a big issue in the central city and that it was likely to involve groups.
"As long as people don't take pride in their city, it's going to have that sort of issue," he said.
He urged anyone who saw tagging to report it to the police.