Young offenders to be used to clean up Belfast graffiti

While Belfast City Council staff will still be employed to remove the most offensive examples – racist or sectarian graffiti would fall into this category – the young criminals on the scheme will be used to remove what the council term ‘non-contentious’ graffiti.

The new service, launched on Wednesday by Lord Mayor of Belfast Alderman Brian Kingston alongside the Probation Board for Northern Ireland, will see young offenders undertaking community service orders to clean up walls or buildings defaced by vandals.

The lord mayor said: “Graffiti is an issue in almost every community, defacing surfaces on public buildings, private homes, children’s playgrounds, bus shelters etc.

“The negative impact of graffiti should not be underestimated. Whole neighbourhoods feel the demoralising effect, as their area is daubed in unsightly graffiti and clean-up is costly.

“The council has finite resources to deal with the scale of non-offensive graffiti throughout the city and we see this partnership with the probation service as a mechanism to addressing some of the non-contentious graffiti in the city.”

He added: “While Belfast City Council does not have a statutory duty to remove graffiti, this scheme does not mean that we will stop doing so.

“We will continue to remove contentious, offensive, sectarian and racist graffiti with the permission of the property owner and where the health and safety of our staff is not compromised.

“This new scheme is designed to allow us to respond to requests to remove non-contentious graffiti more quickly and efficiently.”

Cheryl Lamont, chief executive of Probation Board NI, said: “The service will give an opportunity to offenders to make good on the harm they have caused.” She added that the scheme could be rolled out in other areas, if successful.