Over 30 people came together to remove graffiti from around the town during the second community clean-up on Sunday 6th May.
Residents, Christ Church members, local politicians and PCSOs all turned up to scrub away the graffiti that has hit the town over the last week or so – and all were buoyed at the news that two males were arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning in connection with the graffiti.
All the graffiti was removed from the Radford Street railway bridge after Network Rail finally gave permission earlier this week for volunteers to turn their cleaning fire on it.
And the latest batch of graffiti in Stafford Road that appeared in the early hours of Saturday was also removed using a jet washer.
Volunteers were treated to bacon and sausage sandwiches at Christ Church Centre for their sterling efforts.
Kieran Mcknight, the church’s youth and children’s worker, has been behind the community clean-ups and he was delighted with the turnout. He said: “A huge thank you to everyone who rallied together to clean up the graffiti. What was so pleasing was to see so many young people taking part, working alongside older members of the community.
“I’ll be doing some assemblies at Alleyne’s High School next week and I’ll certainly be talking about their efforts.”
As well as the community clean-up on Sunday, you may have seen someone with a power washer blasting the graffiti from Newcastle Road on Friday. That was Nicholas Softley from Stone, who was loaned the equipment by Cycle Shack in Hednesford. Nicholas said: “It’s such a worthwhile thing to do and I really wanted to play my part. I have just been made redundant and it’s given me the chance to give something back to the community.”
A huge thank you to Simon, Kieran and all the volunteers from A Little Bit of Stone.
8 comments
Sally Walls
Returning from a fortnight away from Stone, I was appalled to see the graffiti on the Radford Street bridge and the wall of the hairdresser. It was also on the bridges along the towpath and even on a wall in Nanny Goat Lane.Shocking!
Many, many thanks to those who were involved in the clean up. I would like to help get rid of the rest but don’t know who to call. Can anyone give me a contact number?
Kieran
Sally, are you looking for the chemicals you need to clean it? or looking for the council or someone to do it. If you want advice on the things you need, email jamie and he will give you my phone number.
Guest
Thats great, can the same community spirit now attend to the dog mess around Stonefield Park. I
jvictor7
We can only hope, we can only hope…
Guest
Judging by how long the problem has persisted, sadly I feel, it will be hope in vain.
Guest
It’s really funny people call us wierd when they see us leaving church on a Sunday morning but call us heroes when we clean the streets up….
jvictor7
I don’t think anyone would call church members in Stone ‘weird’ would they? All of the churches in Stone are right at the heart of the community. Whether you share their congregations’ faith or not, no-one deny the fantastic work that our churches do for the town. Christ Church have been right behind the graffiti clean-up and they also organise the amazing Advent Windows project in Stone each year. There are many, many more examples from all churches. I think most people in the town respect the role they play
Jon Cook
Well done to everyone who could make the clean up and a great community effort to eradicate the vandalism of a mindless few. Let’s hope that whoever is doing this is caught and brought to justice.