Graffiti

Whanganui District Council’s Graffiti team works throughout the city to remove graffiti from targeted and highly visible areas.

Graffiti is any marking or defacement made on public or private property without the owner's permission. 

If you see graffiti

If you see graffiti in any Council-targeted areas please report it by calling the Council Hotline: (06) 349 3144 or by submitting a report online using the form below.

Report graffiti online

Targeted areas include:

  • arterial routes
  • suburban shopping centres
  • city entranceways
  • the Central Business District
  • public walkways
  • tourist locations
  • infrastructure assets such as bus stops, telephone and/or power boxes etc (in accordance with the Customer Service Charter between the Council and local companies).

If you see anyone in the act of tagging report them to police. Watch out for groups acting suspiciously – most graffiti offenders range in age between 10 and 21 years. You can also avoid being a target of graffiti by painting your fence and walls in dark colours. Unpainted fences are great targets for taggers.

Parks and Council-owned property

If you report it, we’ll remove it. The sooner it’s reported, the sooner it can be removed. Rapid removal is one of the best ways to prevent future graffiti.

The Council removes graffiti dependent on the priority given to the area in which it’s occurred.

If you’re a property owner

The Council removes graffiti from private property in highly visible areas. Contact Council Customer Services at (06) 349 0001

Responsible retailers

Graffiti costs the community thousands of dollars each year so the Council has joined forces with Whanganui retailers in an effort to prevent and eliminate the graffiti problem.

Retailers in Whanganui have voluntarily stepped up internal security and design practices to reduce retail theft and stop the illegal sale of spray paint to customers under the age of 18.

Through awareness and strengthened self-policing retailers can curtail costly theft from their stores while demonstrating an active concern for the problems of the community in which they do business.

Recycle your unwanted paint at Resene ColorShops

The Council also supports Resene’s PaintWise programme where residents can drop off unwanted paint. This paint is then made into a composite paint that can be used, free of charge, by community groups to cover graffiti. The Whanganui Resene ColorShop is located at 17 Wilson Street.

Drop off your unwanted paint and paint containers to the Whanganui Resene ColorShop at any time during normal opening hours. Please note that a small charge of 25c per litre applies to non-Resene branded products to help offset the costs of the PaintWise programme.