By Michelle Neathercote
Photo by Julie Archer
Stanwell Park residents are upset and angry about a spate of continuing graffiti attacks on the new facilities in the park area as well as the local school which are believed to be the ‘work’ of local teenagers who sign their tags.
The manager of the recreation park’s care said police had increased their patrols of the region following a series of attacks that had taken place over the previous four Friday nights.
The police had just missed the vandals in the most recent incident when they arrived on Friday night, 20th June with some of the paint still wet and in fleeing the site had left a spray can behind.
Many of the tags are familiar to both the groundsment and the Principal of Stanwell Park Public School who has also had to deal with graffiti tags left from weekend attacks. Concerns about possible vandalism has led to the employment of private security guards to help patrol the school grounds.
“We were fortunate on that particular night that we had a security guard at the school,” said Keith Tomlinson, Principal of Stanwell Park Public School.
“We’re also looking at a range of options to help prevent these kind of incidents although community vigilance and reporting have been helpful in protecting the school in the past.”
Wollongong Council acted promptly to organise clean up crews and to repaint the building back to its previous condition.
The cost of the clean up is yet to be evaluated but will run into many thousands of dollars for Wollongong City Council and local ratepayers.
