Tenerife’s second biggest city is to step up measures against what it calls the “vandals” who deface properties with graffiti.
La Laguna council says it is having to spend approximately 100,000 euros annually to remove graffiti from buildings in the city, which is forced to deploy clean-up teams to get rid of an average of 350 paint sprayings every day, a job requiring a total of over 600 hours of labour every week.
The growing graffiti is not just a problem of resources (both financial and human) but also an eyesore on the streets of the historic city, whose old part – dating back to the late 15th century and the model for many cities in Spain’s then colonies in Latin America – is a Unesco World Heritage site.
Municipal Services boss Fran Hernández says the graffiti, particularly the giant sprayings on the walls of historic buildings and urban furniture, is tarnishing La Laguna’s image and diverting limited resources which are needed elsewhere.
Instructions have been issued to the city’s police force to step up patrols in areas known to be particularly appealing to the sprayers. The council has also called on the public to immediately report anyone seen defacing walls so that police can intervene swiftly.
“It is not just the damage caused: the graffiti sprayers show a total lack of respect for buildings and shared spaces. We will do everything in our power to locate them and hold them accountable for their actions” added a council spokesperson.
