Ealing Council’s envirocrime team will no longer have to battle past bureaucracy to scrub off graffiti from private buildings and homes. The team has been given orders by the council’s cabinet to forget about following relevant laws to the letter because they cause delays of up to six weeks before action can be taken. 

From Monday 2nd October the council will remove the anti-social scrawl from buildings and structures without waiting for owners’ permission. Before, the envirocrime team stuck to the laws directly, meaning they had to get occupiers of homes and businesses to sign disclaimers before graffiti could be removed.  If disclaimers were not signed, the team would face a wait of up to six weeks for all the legal processes to be completed before they could remove the graffiti without the owner’s consent.

The move will help the envirocrime team take much swifter action to keep Ealing’s streets cleaner, which is one of the council’s priorities along with making communities safer and ensuring value for money.

Councillor Will Brooks, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “Graffiti is disgusting and even a little bit can ruin the look of our neighbourhoods. “What we have done here is waive the disclaimer process for a trial period in a bid to get the borough looking cleaner much faster.

 “Some might say we are taking a risk by not following the rules to the letter of the law. “However, we have not got time to sit in our offices filling in forms and waiting for some property owners to ponder whether they want graffiti removed or not. 

The suspension of the disclaimer process will last initially for four months. Disclaimers are an effective way of reducing the risk of liability for claims resulting from damage to property or personal injury which may occur during the removal of graffiti.  If disclaimers are not signed, and damage or personal injury occurs, the council will not be insured against any claims which may follow.

The council’s decision-making cabinet made this decision on Tuesday 19 September. 

This decision is subject to call-in for a period of five working days from the date of publication of the cabinet minutes.  Ealing Council recently doubled the amount of graffiti teams it has working in the borough, from three to six. This was to help it reach the target of removing graffiti from publicly owned property within 24 hours from the time it is reported to the contractor. To report graffiti, residents should ring Customer Services on 020 8825 6000. 

 

September 27, 2006