By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey Council is set to install signs designed to shame the State Government into cleaning up a heavily-graffitied rail bridge in Narre Warren.
On 18 April, in a motion led by mayor Sam Aziz, the council approved the signs at the Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road overpass to read: “The ugly state of this railway overpass is the responsibility of the State Government.”
The signs would then instruct readers to contact the three Casey-based state MPs Luke Donnellan, Judith Graley and Jude Perera and provide their office phone numbers to “get it fixed”.
The council will also issue a daily tweet on its Twitter account until the matter was resolved.
At the council meeting, mayor Sam Aziz vented his “extreme disgust” that the “vandalism” had yet to be removed from the bridge near the council’s under-construction $125 million Bunjil Place.
“The council does not accept the nonsense that has been peddled which suggests that the railway service may have to be stopped for this graffiti to be cleaned, given that it’s completely external to the train tracks with protective railings above it, in any case,” Cr Aziz’s motion stated.
Cr Aziz said the rail asset authority VicTrack had not only refused to remove the “ugly eye-sore” on Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road, Narre Warren, but rejected Casey’s offered solution – to lease the bridge walls as advertising space.
A council report on 18 April stated VicTrack had declined due to its policy of not allowing “third party assets” affixed to its railway bridges.
Cr Aziz said the authority had stated it only removed graffiti if it threatened public safety. This failed to match Casey’s 24-hour graffiti removal response policy, he said.
“Councillors, this has been nothing short of a disgrace.”
Further in Cr Aziz’s motion, he stated: “The council feels most embarrassed given the imminent opening of Bunjil Place and the expectation of millions of visitors to the City of Casey every year, and the recent trade mission into China which will result in international visitors, that this ugly public eyesore remains unrectified by its State Government owners.”
Councillor Rosalie Crestani added to the motion that Casey would lobby the state’s Department of Justice for tougher penalties to the “highest possible level”.
Fines should be increased, even jail should be considered, Cr Crestani said.
She said the crime was serious because taxpayers footed a damage bill of thousands of dollars of each year.
The council will also write to the State Government – and the three local state MPs – against the “obvious passing of the buck” for “what should be a simple clean-up of graffiti”.
Under the motion, the council would also “invite” the government to advise how it would “halt Melbourne’s progression into looking like a poor version of New York in the 1970s”.
It would also seek an update from the State Government on progress of “counter-vandalism measures” on the Monash Freeway.
