Graffiti up 36 per cent

THE Gold Coast’s spit-andpolish ahead of the Commonwealth Games is being marred by “creeps” who are contributing to a 36 per cent rise in graffiti.

Gold Coast City Council figures show the number of graffiti reports has risen from more than 5500 to almost 7500 in the past year.

The rise comes as the council searches for a company to take over graffiti removal services across the city.

Police said they were seeing clusters of reports in the Southport, Broadbeach and Coomera areas.

Council said the hotspots vary but graffiti vandals tended to prefer highly populated areas and locations along key public transport routes.

Southport councillor Dawn Crichlow said the number of tags in the CBD had been on the rise.

“They are creeps and they have nothing else better to do,” she said.

“Fine them and put them into national service.”

She said the rise in graffiti was a concern less than a year from the Commonwealth Games when the city will be on show to the world.

Cr Crichlow said the graffiti popping up around the Glitter Strip was not art and just people “tagging” an area with their symbol.

“They are just trying to identify themselves, they are not even trying to do art,” she said.

About $1 million is spent each year removing graffiti.

In the city’s southern areas, Robina and Varsity Lakes councillor Hermann Vorster said the problem had become so bad vigilante anti-tagging groups were popping up.

“When a tag goes up someone is coming along and scraping the tag off or covering it up,” he said.

“There is anger in the community over it.”

Mayor Tom Tate said additional CCTV cameras had helped deter vandals.