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Restorative justice at work
Restorative justice at work
Joint working between councils and the police has enabled a great example of restorative justice this week – as a result of the Community Safety Partnership’s commitment to tackling the problems that matter to Swale residents, as well as their causes.
After a local student admitted to the offence of graffiti on the Long Bridge in Faversham – a coordinated effort between Swale Borough Council’s Graffiti Busting team and Kent Police meant that the area was given a thorough cleanse on Tuesday 6th July by the offender and the Swale Borough Council team.
Working together, the offender used graffiti wipes to clean the section of the bridge that she had defaced, while the Swale Borough Council Environmental Response team worked from the other end of the bridge with their powerful pressure washer, graffiti buster.
In addition PC Ann Jones, continues a series of ‘Graffiti Education’ days across Swale to help impress upon our youngsters the damage that graffiti causes to offenders and our communities.
A regular graffiti-busting cycle means that every two weeks, Council Street Wardens visit areas across Faversham, Sittingbourne and the Isle of Sheppey where graffiti has been reported as a problem. They use a high powered pressure washer to ensure that graffiti never gets the chance to get a hold in an area. By working with the police in gathering data and recording it on a shared graffiti information database, they are able to determine patterns, and catch offenders.
Principal Street Warden for Swale Borough Council, Geraldine Chidley, said: “We work closely with our Police partners to track and catch offenders – and find that this form of restorative justice works really well.”
“The offender is supervised while he or she cleans off the area that they have defaced – and if there is additional graffiti present we will take the opportunity to cleanse that too, using the graffiti buster.”
“Graffiti can have a very negative impact on an area which is why we work so hard with our 6 weekly cycle of graffiti busting to ensure that we maintain Swale’s 98% ‘graffiti-free street’ record - and aim to remove racial or offensive graffiti within 24 hours of any report. But if we catch an offender, we will ensure they do their bit of the cleaning too.”
PC Ann Jones, Safer Schools Coordinator, Swale Community Safety Unit, concluded: “We work very hard with our Partners in the local Council to help educate our young people about the damage and cost of graffiti upon our communities.”
“We visit schools across the borough on a regular basis to reiterate this message and help youngsters understand that graffiti is an anti-social behaviour that should not be emulated or tolerated.”
To report any graffiti to our busters, call Swale Borough Council on 01795 417850.
