As Colinton community councillors met this week, high on the agenda was the growing scourge of graffiti and they are hardly unique; across Edinburgh a handful of idiots despoil our streets with “tagging” to mark out what they regard as their “territory”.
If it gives their aimless lives some meaning then maybe it does perform some sort of warped function, but for the rest of us the pathetic scrawls are nothing but an eyesore, sticking two fingers up at decent people who respect their neighbourhoods.
The process of removing graffiti is bureaucratic and time-consuming because the council has no responsibility for cleaning up utilities like telecoms boxes or public buildings it doesn’t own, and the defacing of historic buildings is even more problematic because of worries about the effect of chemicals.
Nevertheless, there is a “Pride in our City” initiative, in which a Council team is sent into each of the 17 council wards in turn for a month-long clean-up, and next month it will be the turn of Colinton/Fairmilehead.
The community council is glad something is being done and I’m sure it will be welcomed by local people and will make a difference. But only until the youths responsible return to replace their marks and, presumably, their sense of self-worth.
The point is that “Pride in our City” should not just be a month-long, one-off scrub up, as if loving the place you live is something you can switch on and off, because for people who care it is a never-ending process which councils should not neglect.
