Comments from a Newcastle in January 2007

We have now been running a project with graffiti boards trackside on metro in newcastle , these boards have caused some debate with passengers, most have agreed they like some of the work, others don't. The object was to reduce graffiti on a part on the line that was all ways covered.

After meeting writers and agreeing how it would be managed it was agreed to show these boards, 9ft by 12 ft, three in total. The areas were cleaned and the boards went up and in the 12 months of them being up it has reduced graffiti by 90% in the area around where the baords are placed . Over all this has been a succes and we are now looking at ways to increase the work we have done with writers.

While ilegal graffiti will never stop if you can work with writers to reduce graffiti and cleaning cost while allowing some graffiti work to be done then every one wins, Not all graffiti writers just want to tag some guys/girls when allowed the time can be ammazing to watch.

See photos below

Response from GraffitiHotline

Thank you for your e-mail.

Can I ask a question. Is it feasible for a group to be given access during engineering time when lines are powered down, to paint directly onto embankment walls? When professional artists create large murals they spend weeks with pen and paper designing their work and then a team would spend a couple of days reproducing this on the wall. I could see quite a number of people being engaged in this way and then working through the night on a ten hour shift to put it into action - what a challenge!

Reply from a Newcastle in January 2007

Please find below some pictures of some work that has been up on tracks around metro . As a rule these boards are done off site as due to Health and Safety it would not be possible to allow people to go track side in working hours we have done some work over night when the system is shut down this has been in the no access areas of stations , over all we have found that this has given us a reduction of graffiti in these areas , while I do not think we will ever stop all illegal graffiti the prospect of doing nothing but remove /prosecute etc has to date not been that successful , so like most things at some point a new approach has to be tried, At nexus(metro) we are trying to work with local writers to engage in legal work and stop them from trespassing on metro lines.