ONE of the city’s councillors is pushing for Ballarat to consider decriminalising graffiti.
Inspired by a recent trip to Amsterdam Cr Vicki Coltman said more needed to be done to support offenders, rather than persecute them.
Ideas floated included dedicating walls and laneways to street art, mirroring similar initiatives rolled out by the City of Melbourne.
In Amsterdam, places to paint are granted to street artists. Some artists are even sponsored and commissioned for their works. Cr Coltman said decriminalising graffiti artists would help them gain opportunities and promote creativity.
While Cr Coltman said she was opposed to “any kind of tagging,” she believed street art had the ability to galvanise the community, sparking conversations and debate.
“We’re not talking about legalising tagging or defacing properties,” Cr Coltman said. “Taggers are not street artists. This is art which promotes real designs with a purpose. It gets people thinking and when it is done sensitively it can beautify the city.”
Cr Coltman said in the past the council was “too reactive and not proactive enough” about fighting the city’s scourge in vandalism.
"For every youth caught with an aerosol can, there will be another after them," Cr Coltman said. "You're always going to be punishing a child and you're always going to have a problem. Rather than punishing offenders we need to look at ways we can break the cycle. One way is creating opportunities for the ones who have creative talent to express themselves."
However, the city’s community safety committee chair, Cr Des Hudson, said he wasn’t convinced legal graffiti areas were the answer.
In some cases, he said, surrounding streets could become vandalism epicentres.
He also said the idea of completely decriminalising graffiti was "fraught with danger."
"There is a level of evidence which suggests that having these legal graffiti walls or fences rarely result in the graffiti being contained to the area allocated,” Cr Hudson said.
“In some cases, it can cause a ripple effect and result in an increase in graffiti and vandalism in that area. On face value it can seem like a really good idea. But we’ve seen in the past that people living close to these areas have often been subjected to further destruction of property.”
Cr Hudson said while he was opposed to any type of criminal damage, he was a strong advocate for legitimate street art or high quality aerosol art.
“It is a fascinating and undervalued artistic form and it does have a place in the community,” Cr Hudson said. “But it needs to be positioned extremely carefully and appropriately.”
Cr Coltman said one instance where the idea had worked as a deterrent was the artistic mural at the Civic Hall car park.
Once a graffiti hotspot, vandalism at the site had decreased by 95 per cent.
Last year, the council spent almost $70,000 cleaning up graffiti.
Earlier this year, Ballarat was dubbed one of the worst cities in regional Victoria for vandalism by former chief inspector Bob Barby.
Others argued rather than decriminalising graffiti, artists with talent should be commissioned.
