New street bins in Lisburn have been covered in graffiti
Spray paint attacks on new Lisburn public bins have been condemned amid recent racially motivated graffiti in the city.
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s (LCCC) regeneration and growth committee is to seek a budget to remove “tags” and “innuendos” from its street bins.
The council chamber heard that efforts to remove the spray paint should be on the same level as recent racist graffiti removed from Education Minister Paul Givan’s constituency office and a number of walls in the city. Alliance councillor, Nicola Parker said: “There are new council bins that have been put out across the district and they have already been vandalised with graffiti.
“Many of these bins now have some person’s graffiti tags and even innuendoes sprayed all over them and are unsightly.”
In October, Mark Olphert, 45, was charged and bailed on seven counts of criminal damage around racially-motivated graffiti at a number of locations in Lisburn and one charge of displaying written material to stir up hatred or arouse fear. One of the locations targeted was DUP MLA Paul Givan’s constituency office on the corner of Graham Gardens.
A council officer responded: “We recognise this is a problem across all district electoral areas.
“No sooner has there been new shiny bins put out that there has been graffiti put on them.
“We do have the ability to remove graffiti, just as there was recent racist graffiti removed from walls in Lisburn without delay.
“We can perhaps look at our budget to see if we can do something about this.”