WRITING ON THE WALL FOR GRAFFITI VANDALS

19-02-2007

The scourge of Birmingham's spray painting taggers has come up with an original solution to cure their habit - he's providing them with a safe indoor space where their vandalism can be channelled into art.

Martin Mullaney, a councillor for Moseley, has been running a campaign to draw attention to the unsightly graffiti which he reckons is running down parts of the ward he represents.

He's even made a film about the problem which we featured here on The Stirrer - if you missed it, you can check it out here.

Rather than just complain about the problem, though, Mullaney has come up with a constructive alternative to the youngsters - the creation of a graffiti art studio at the Epic Skate Park in Moseley.

He's even managed to come up with an £1800 subsidy to cover the cost of canvasses, so those who simply can't resist the urge to scrawl their name over local walls will now have a place where they can do if safely and legally.

Mullany told us: “Keith Marsden who runs Epic contacted us, and he's keen to help. It will be run on a membership basis, so it won't just be a free for all, and if anyone is known to be tagging, they won't be let in.”

Birmingham Council has previously tried a similar but unsupervised legalised graffiti experiment in the “pocket park” next to Selly Oak library, but Mullaney saysthe “taggers” have over-run the artists and simply destroyed its appearance..

By creating a supervisedindoor environment - “probably the first of its kind in Britain” he reckons-youngsters who want to seriously develop their spraying skills will be able to develop.