Councillors want public to help tackle hate graffiti

Labour's Francesca Brennan and Robert Moran say that concerned constituents have contacted them about vandals spraying offensive messages on walls and underpasses across Greenock and Port Glasgow.

Council staff recently removed graffiti from the underpasses near the Bullring roundabout, which have been repeatedly targeted by vandals.

Cllr Brennan told the Telegraph that Municipal Buildings bosses are looking at installing anti-graffiti panels at hotspots to curb the problem.

She said: "Every time council staff clean this the messages are put back again, which is frustrating.

"We really want people to respect their towns.

"We want our town centres to be a nice place for people to come to - this isn't helping in any way."

The ward four elected member says that the council's efforts to tackle the problem have been hampered by the lack of a local graffiti team.

She has also been in contact with Nil By Mouth, a charity which seeks to address sectarianism in Scotland, about hate speech-based graffiti.

She added: "Nil By Mouth have said that the absence of a graffiti team locally is a real problem.

"They've done a lot of research and found out that one in five instances of this kind of graffiti will be sectarian, racist, homophobic or something similar.

"That's a real issue for us and officers are committed to getting rid of that right away.

"Scottish Government cuts mean we have no graffiti team anymore as it's had to be cut.

"That means we can't respond quickly as we'd like to - as soon as graffiti goes up it should get taken down.

"We need to make sure we highlight that kind of graffiti straight away and also make sure that owners of buildings with that kind of graffiti take action quickly.

"Hate speech is a growing and this graffiti shows that it can affect the physical environment too."

Local resident Graeme Kirkwood, who works at the Greenock Fire Museum, regularly uses the Bullring car park.

He said: "The graffiti was terrible.

"It said things like 'F the cops' and there was a big golliwog drawn on the side - other people at the museum, passers-by and even cruise passengers all commented on it.

"I would have thought all you'd need to do is power-wash it but with council cuts they can't do everything.

"It's brilliant that it's cleaned up now and hopefully the cruise ship passengers will not have to see it when they start coming in.

"Keeping it clean will be a challenge, I don't know how you educate the people doing it.

"We've got to get the public reporting this to the police or the council when they see it happening."

Port Glasgow councillor Robert Moran has also been approached by constituents about the issue, with a recent incident at an underpass near Kingston Dock being highlighted.

He added: "Part of this is to do with the problems Port Glasgow and Port Glasgow town centre have with anti-social behaviour.

"It's a vicious cycle and we have to break it.

"The whole community can do their bit to deal with this."

An Inverclyde Council spokesperson said: "While we do not have a dedicated graffiti removal service, we do still remove graffiti from properties we own as and when required.

"On private property, it is the responsibility of the owners to remove graffiti.

"Graffiti is, of course, an act of vandalism and is illegal.

"Anyone caught carrying out this act of vandalism can be prosecuted."

READ MORE: Subscribe to our newsletter for the chance to win £500