NEWS DESK
Town’s plan to wipe out graffiti VOLUNTEERS at Rye are working with police and Mornington Peninsula Shire Council on a plan to wipe out graffiti that has become an eyesore in the central business area. Mechelle Cheers, of Rye Community Group Alliance, said businesses and property owners had a hard time keeping up with the removal of graffiti and tags. On Tuesday 3 May alliance members, business and property owners, football and netball clubs and community members, along with councillors Sarah Race and Susan Bissinger, met with police officer Michelle Bradley, shire officers, graffiti removalist Graham Saville and street artist Trent Downie to discuss what could be done. Suggested solutions ranged from increasing the number of CCTV cameras in graffiti hot spots, extra police patrols, reporting through the snap-send-solve app, identifying tags through a data base, rapid removal of the graffiti and tagging and selective use of street art. Cheers said there was strong support for developing a strategy involving the shire, community and police working together to deal with the current spate of tagging. The meeting finished with the removal of graffiti from hot spots in Campbell Lane, Napier Street and a beach box.
Lights on ‘by end of June’ THE pedestrian lights near St Macartans’s Primary School in Bungower Road, Mornington could be turned on “before the end of June”. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s infrastructure projects manager Derek Rotter, said the lights had taken longer than expected due to the impacts of COVID-19 and the need to consult with external agencies, including the Department of Transport. The department initially approved the design for the traffic lights, which were installed almost one year ago, but then requested additional works before they could be activated. Rotter also said the department was procuring and installing its own equipment to link into the lights. “We anticipate that works will be completed before the end of June and look forward to having these lights switched on,” he said. The lights and associated works, paid for and managed by the shire, are believed to have cost around $400,000 and were expected to ease the congestion issues on Bungower Road, near St Macartans and Racecourse Road. The shire has completed a road safety audit and has finalised the design in discussion with the DoT and is now working with the department to complete the works and the programming of the pedestrian signals. To make the crossing safe the shire has installed “puffin” (pedestrian user-friendly Intelligent) detectors, lanterns at the pedestrian crossing and “stop here on red signal” signs.
A wall in Napier Street, Rye, top, has been a graffiti hot spot and, below, residents who attended the clean-up session and are determined to clean up Rye.
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11 May 2022
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