Trio of Brockenhurst residents who painted over obscene graffiti in male public are in hot water with parish council

BROCKENHURST residents who took matters into their own hands in tackling obscene graffiti in the village’s public toilets have been criticised by the parish council.

David Bennett was helped by New Forest district councillor Adam Parker and a friend to clean up the scrawlings in the men’s loos, which included crude representations of male genitalia and profanities.

NFDC, which is responsible for the facility, could not commit to dealing with the defaced conveniences until October, which David said was “beyond the busy tourist season; so, we decided to do it ourselves”.

But far from being impressed by their community-spirited ways, parish council members are now complaining it will take even longer for NFDC to repaint the walls.

David told the A&T: “It was disgusting, and visitors to Brockenhurst were seeing this – what kind of impression of our beautiful village does that give to them?

“Requests were made to the parish council and the district council to tackle the graffiti, but we were told that NFDC had to first carry out a risk assessment, along with other tests.”

Armed with a tin of paint and some brushes, the trio covered the graffiti themselves.

David continued: “The drawings and things written were really awful. It was mindless vandalism and it needed to be got rid of. It was highly unpleasant, and visitors and residents should not have to put up with it.

“It took us about a morning and the toilets looked splendid when we had finished.”

But in a statement Peter Wales, chairman of Brockenhurst Parish Council, said: “Councillors did state that it was unfortunate that as a result of the residents’ action, additional work now has to be carried out which will further delay completion of the works.

“The parish council would wish to continue working with the district council to improve the situation at the earliest opportunity.”

A spokesperson for NFDC said: “The graffiti could not be removed using the standard products our public toilet cleaning staff have. We had met on site with representatives from the parish council to discuss which works may be possible.

“As we received no request prior to the painting being done, we were not able to approve methodologies, products, or issue risk assessments needed to keep people safe in our facility.

“Immediately after we became aware that painting had been done, we visited the site to assess. Despite the delay caused, we aim to have the toilets painted and additional repair works completed by end October 2024.”