The ability to target graffiti is a positive spin-off for the Queenstown Lakes District Council district inspector's role, QLDC Wakatipu operations manager Greg Stewart said.

"Regular inspections of council owned infrastructure on Queenstown streets have shown a disturbing amount of mindless tagging and graffiti, which if left, tends to lead to more of the same," Mr Stewart said.

Targets have included Telecom switch boxes, lamp posts, signs and in particular electrical installations owned by Aurora Energy.

"For this reason the council has entered into a cost sharing agreement with Aurora Energy and engaged a contractor to promptly deal with the problem," Mr Stewart said.

Under the terms of our agreement, the council's contractor will remove or paint over graffiti on electrical installations with the cost being on-charged to Aurora, he said.

"Our inspector is reporting any incidents of vandalism, including tagging and graffiti, not only on council and Aurora assets but also on the sides of privately owned buildings," Mr Stewart said.

The council then corresponded with the owners or managers of the buildings and had generally received a good response to requests for removal of graffiti.

"We also offer the services of our contractor if the owner is unable to attend to this themselves, which has proved useful," Mr Stewart said.

The theory was that if the town could be kept graffiti free it would discourage further vandalism.

"The other element to this is that wherever we can as a community, we should pursue prosecution and cost recovery. Some of the work is quite elaborate and must take time. People should call the police if they notice any illegal activity," Mr Stewart said.

ENDS

For more information please contact Greg Stewart 03 441 0499.

By: Sarah