CAR TAG: One of the three cars in a row tagged in Island Bay. PHOTO: Abby Brown.
Cars are being tagged near Island Bay skate park but there are no plans for security cameras to keep graffiti contained to the park.
It is too much of a stretch to say skate park taggers are to blame for the three cars tagged on The Parade, says Wellington City Council communications manager Richard MacLean
Steve Roundtree, who manages Dial a Driver, disagrees – he believes young people who tag the park have tagged the cars.
Across the bonnet and passenger door of his Dial a Driver car, which he uses for advertising purposes, is the tag SATG.
“You can’t leave anything nice outside anymore,” he says.
The same tag is on a builder’s van, across the road at Cartechs.
“Obviously the owner of the van is not too impressed and we are not impressed by the tagging of our building,” says Cartechs manager Phillip Roberts.
He says taggers need to be dealt with more severely by the courts as a way to deter further tagging.
A silver Alfa Romeo car down the road bears the same tag across two doors.
Mr MacLean says it is wrong to assume the graffiti on the three cars just metres from the heavily-tagged skate park was done by the same people.
He says while the council is never happy to hear about this form of tagging, it would not consider putting in security cameras at Wakefield Park to contain tagging to the skate board park.
“It is too expensive and automotive tagging is extremely rare.”
He is unhappy to hear the Wakefield Park building has also been tagged after the council recently invested millions of dollars laying new turf there.
The Council will continue with its policy of cleaning off graffiti, rather than focusing on prevention.
Mr Roberts says he will contact the council to organise getting the graffiti on his shop painted over, and has contacted the police.