Blacon cycle track art project.

Blacon Community Safety Partnership has been working with the Blacon cycle track owners 'SUSTRANS' to develop a plan to tackle criminal damage, a criminal offence recognised as adversely affecting people's perceptions about their local environment and raising fear of crime.

The old railway bridge arches over the cycle track at Saughall Road and Egerton Road have long been seen as a problem and a source of complaints by residents as they have been blighted by unsightly graffiti.

The partnership wanted to try and make a positive difference to the location and initially sought options to have the graffiti removed. Unfortunately this was not possible as the jetting process required may have damaged the bridge mortar potentially leading to costly repair work.

The second option was to paint over the existing graffiti under both bridges to 'kill it' in a sympathetic colour. Finance was made available to provide an artwork mural under one bridge.

Before any work was done the partnership undertook consultation with local residents, councillors and users of the cycle track to gauge support or otherwise for the scheme.

The majority of those who responded felt that the location couldn't be worse than it already was, and most were supportive, hence it was decided to go ahead, although the partnership took cognizance of respondents who were ambivalent or against the scheme, generally on the grounds of concerns the project may attract more anti-social behaviour than before. The situation with reported anti-social behaviour will be monitored for several months to assess any changes to the volume and type of reporting of incidents.

Local youth worker Warren Betts developed designs for the site with young people from BYPP (Building Young People's Potential) and completed the work on Friday 6th July 2007. It is hoped that involving the young people from the beginning in the design and implementation of the project will promote ownership of the work making it less likely to be vandalised. This is a strategy employed with some success in other areas of the County. Both designs are painted over with an anti-graffiti glaze to minimise problems with graffiti in future.

The results of their efforts are shown alongside.

in addition, the arches beneath the Saughall Road bridge were treated with the anti-graffiti gloss.

The finance for the project will be provided by SUSTRANS and the Blacon Community Safety Partnership. Total cost was just over £500.

Let us know what you think about this work with young people to improve the area. Use our online form here.