The owner of an Isle of Wight convenience store has condemned a ‘nuisance’ tag next to his shop amid a ‘spate of graffiti’ in Nettlestone and Seaview.
Concerns surfaced at the area’s parish council on 15th June, with clerk Brian Jennings suggesting a £500 anti-social behaviour fund and councillor Patricia Redpath warning the problem could grow if not addressed.
Cllr Stuart Marlton urged the public body to ‘suggest, encourage, cajole’ to get a marking outside Vic’s Nisa Local at Nettlestone Green removed as soon as possible.
Mr Jennings said there had been a ‘spate of graffiti’ in the parish, although later remarked that it was not a ‘massive’ problem, to which Cllr Redpath said it was not at the moment but that it ‘could be’.
A member of the public, Philip Redpath, said it was a ‘natural instinct’ for human beings to want to fill empty spaces.
Mr Redpath asked where there could be a whitewashed wall for people to graffiti on and which could be covered over on occasions saying:
“You never know you might get a new Banksy.”
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Cllr David Adams was unconvinced, telling the meeting:
“(Graffiti artists) They know we would come along and just repaint the white wall.”
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) after the meeting, the Nisa store owner Pranay Patel, 44, labelled the graffiti a ‘nuisance’.
He said:
“I believe it’s a holiday maker who’s come over the Easter period. We’ve experienced it on the mainland where we’ve got a couple of sites where they’ve graffitied a wall or window, we’ve got it cleaned and tidied and two weeks later, they’ve coming back and redoing it again.
“Obviously it’s an unwanted expense for any business to keep replacing it. My plan is to remove it or try find a solution to get rid of it. No one wants to see graffiti on their walls…there’s only so much from a business point of view we could do to prevent that.”
Asked if there was any assistance or support he would like from the parish or county council, Mr Patel said any help ‘would be great’ and mentioned a Portsmouth City Council scheme helping affected businesses.
Patel said:
“They removed the graffiti the first time and if it happened again, it was the business owner’s responsibility to remove it.
“I reckon in six months, it’ll be tagged again either by the same people or someone else.”
However, the businessman said that there was an issue of where councils ‘draw the line’ given the scale of graffiti incidents.
Mr Patel said there was not a solution due to there always being another graffiti artist once one is stopped and limited police resources.
