Studley council refuses to apologise to graffiti hero sent £277 clean up bill - The Redditch Standard

Studley council refuses to apologise to graffiti hero sent £277 clean up bill

Redditch Editorial 17th Aug, 2017 Updated: 17th Aug, 2017   0

THERE will be no apology to Craig Hunt, the man who has now twice exposed Studley Parish Council’s inability to promptly remove obscene graffiti.

This was despite calls from two councillors at Tuesday evening’s parish meeting who urged that ‘commonsense should prevail’.

Furthermore, the issue at the heart of the matter – the authority’s failure to deal quickly with graffiti – was kicked down the road to be considered by another committee at a later date.

However, members did agree to withdraw the £277.50 they had expected Craig to pay for painting over disgusting drawings on the village skate park.




The retired bank worker’s story hit the national headlines last weekend after councillors sent the police to his door to caution him and tell him of the three-figure bill he faced.

It was the second time Craig had acted. Earlier in the year he had leapt into action after becoming frustrated that disgusting graffiti sprayed by youngsters on the skate park had been left untouched for three weeks by the parish council.


That action brought him a rebuke from the council for acting without its knowledge or consent.

This time around the graffiti was reported on July 22, inspected by councillors on July 23, yet nothing was done for days after, prompting Craig to ignore his warning and again paint over the obscenities.

He was then identified on CCTV, prompting the police to act.

Coun Jill Beard said: “I would like to think that Craig Hunt will get an apology. This turn of events was reported on July 23 and immediate action was requested. Common sense should have prevailed.”

Coun Brian Dixon added: “We carried out the inspection and what we saw was pornographic and in my view whoever did this should pay the whole bill.

“Craig Hunt does a first-class job and, in my view, to get rid of it quickly was not wrong.”

However, Coun Jim Bacon said: “We cannot apologise to him. He cannot do what he wants with other people’s property. It’s a two-way conversation and it was not the first time either.”

Put to the vote, councillors agreed to rescind the bill but voted against issuing an apology.

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