The City of Melbourne has unveiled its latest push to rid the CBD of graffiti, with crews to be on standby at all hours of the day to remove tags scrawled around the area.
A new five-year contract involving Spotless and Calcorp has just taken effect which provides for street cleaning and graffiti removal 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The new push will also involve daily monitoring of areas deemed graffiti hotspots, while response times will now be set at one hour instead of two hours.
Priority will be given to the removal of offensive graffiti. The new contract comes alongside the council investing $97 million into clean city services between 2021 and 2024.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the move was about deterring repeat offenders, adding the council was determined to ensure the city was “always looking its best”.
“We’re supercharging our cleaning efforts like never before – with boots on the ground twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” Ms Capp said.
“A clean city is one our residents, traders and city workers can be proud of, which is why we’ve tripled our investment in cleaning services over the past four years.
“We know the best deterrent to crack down on repeat offenders is to remove graffiti as soon as possible.
“That’s why we’re taking our services to the next level to ensure our city is always looking its best.”
The council has also confirmed targeted hotspot pressure washing in busy laneways will now be undertaken daily, up from the previous five days a week.
The electric vehicle fleet has also been tripled to six to ensure better response times, which comes amid new environmental targets being set.
“Council has set stronger environmental targets for the new service – reducing emissions, increasing non-potable water usage, and diverting more waste from landfill,” the council said.
“It is estimated the new contract will reduce annual fuel consumption by more than 100,000 litres – the equivalent of 265 tonnes of greenhouse emissions saved per year.
“In the last year, more than 112,000m2 of graffiti – the equivalent to five MCG’s worth – was removed and 1,568 tonnes of dumped rubbish were collected – 32 per cent more than the previous year.”
The council in recent months came under fire for its graffiti removal response times.
The city also suffered a blow to its graffiti and street waste reporting system in late 2022 when vandals placed an alternative QR code over stickers around the area which led to YouTube clips promoting graffiti instead of council services.
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