Dundee City Council Press Releases

Recent Press Releases | Archive | 2009 | January subscribe to our RSS feed

Shelters

BUS shelters in Dundee that are repeatedly vandalised could be removed as the final sanction in a new policy to be considered by councillors next week.

The ultimate penalty will only be imposed after a series of other measures have been taken to try to reduce the £81,000 a year repair bill.

Convener of the planning and transport committee, Fraser Macpherson said: "It is simply not fair on the council tax payer of Dundee for us to continue to spend their money on a programme of rapid repair when some of the shelters involved are targeted repeatedly by a small but persistent unthinking and uncaring section of the community.

"Some of the worst hit shelters are attacked between 10 and 15 times a year, and less than seven percent of all the shelters in the city account for more than half of the repair bill."

Members of the planning and transport committee, which meets on Monday (September 8), will be asked to agree a new policy to encourage the communities where shelters are worst hit to help protect them by reporting all incidents of vandalism.

If it is approved a series of measures will be brought in as part of the new policy, which recommends that:

·        where more than 80% of glass panels are destroyed in one incident, every glass panel should be replaced with polycarbonate;

·        where more than £1000 worth of damage is done in any 12 months all glass panels should be replaced with polycarbonate;

·        where polycarbonate is damaged within two years of installation it could be replaced with galvanised steel mesh or removed altogether; and

·        where repeated acts of fire or electrical interference happen, the shelter should be completely removed.

Councillors will be told that a new shelter costs £12,000 to install and £300 is spent every year on cleaning and maintenance, excluding vandalism repair costs.

According to the report by director of planning and transportation, Mike Galloway, Dundee City Council will continue to work closely with Tayside Police on crime reporting, incident investigation and other joint working, as well as with other groups on offender rehabilitation.