Spray, Wipe and Walk Away

Date: Tuesday 27 October 2009

What blasts, cleans, sprays and paints – a Japanese bottle truck.

The City Council has just taken delivery of the truck which has two dedicated responsibilities, to remove graffiti and water blast the area.

Since the start of the month the vehicle has been utilised daily to remove graffiti and clean City Council buildings and the exterior of property on main arterial routes.

The bottle truck contains a 550 litre water tank, 3000 psi water blaster, a chemical sprayer, a six metre extension which is attached to the blaster and a 400mm diameter rotating pavement scrubber. The truck also comes equipped with chemicals, solvents and paint.

Resource and Pricing Officer, Allan Davey, says the Council purchased the truck because of the urgent need to address the ongoing problem of graffiti in the city.

"The new service will consolidate graffiti removal undertaken by the Council into" one service, provide a better reporting system to identify offenders and offer savings to ratepayers by having a one stop service,” he says.

He says for the operation to be totally effective it needs members of the public to contact the Council’s Customer Service Centre on 356-8199 and report graffiti.

The operator, Stewart McDonald, will check out where graffiti regularly occurs but needs the help of the community to inform the Council Allan says. If it’s on private property the Council can still clean it off after negotiating a fee with the owner.