Conditional on existing graffiti be removed
POSITIVE moves are underway to curtail indiscriminate outbreaks of graffiti throughout Limerick city.
Just hours after a city councillor claimed that a graffiti war is underway in Limerick, with rival gangs competing to damage public and private buildings with their individual identity marks, Limerick City Council has confirmed that it is planning to provide a designated area to street art.
Commenting to the Limerick Post, Paul Foley, senior executive officer in the Council’s Environment Department, said that following a very constructive meeting with street artists groups, it has been agreed to introduce a designated street area in a regulated way.
“We agreed to engage with representative groups of artists and try to agree on a suitable area but with a precondition that existing graffiti will be removed to enable us start with a clean canvas”.
Mr Foley confirmed that a number of street artists have been questioned by the council’s environmental inspectors and the Garda Siochana.
“A very successful restorative justice programme has been completed and they have been n dialogue with the gardai and the council and we now feel that the initiative to develop a designated street area for graffiti and street art could work in parallel with the restorative programme.
“We are extending the arm of friendship to the artists,” he said.
Limerick City Council had been spending in excess of €30,000 annually on cleaning graffiti from buildings and the city’s business sector also pays out considerable expenditure in having graffiti removed.
Cllr Tom Shortt, who chaired a recent meeting on the issue, attended by urban artists, and representatives from the business sector and City Hall, said it was agreed that a code of respect for business premises would be observed.
“We also agreed that the street artists’ activities would be confined to areas where it would not cause upset .
“I am very pleased that City Hall’s Paul Foley agrees to designate an area to showcase street art and that a steering committee is to be established that could see their work being exhibited in the City Gallery of Art.
“With Limerick being designated City of Culture in 2014, this satisfactory outcome to the graffiti issue is very timely,” he added.
Cllr Joe Leddin, commenting on a recent outbreak of graffiti in his own area of Limerick South, which includes a wall at the corner of Alphonsus Street and the South Circular Road: a boundary wall between the Dock Road and Mary Immaculate College and along the stretch of properties from the Dominican Church corner to Lady’s Lane on Dominic Street, says he has no issue with designated space for graffiti artists.
“But graffiti on public buildings is criminal damage and as we all work towards Limerick’s designation as City of Culture in 2014, we must eradicate this problem in the immediate future.
“Those caught, depending on their age should be prosecuted using all the relevant legislation available and made an example of”.
