Cowra Shire Council faces a significant annual cost of nearly $30,000 due to vandalism across our parks, gardens, sports fields, and amenities.
This comes on the back of a wave of vandalism over the past two weeks that has seen numerous businesses and landmarks across Cowra impacted.
"Every act of vandalism not only drains resources but also diminishes the beauty and functionality of our shared community spaces," said Philippa Childs of Cowra Shire Council.
"Despite the Council's proactive efforts in fixing, cleaning, and repairing graffiti and damages, the burden persists."
While many of the incidents are just little things being broken that get fixed in regular maintenance it is still taking a huge amount of time and resources for Council when all the little jobs add up. Property crime statistics for Cowra show that 1 in 23 people are likely to fall victim to property crime vs 1 in 41 across NSW and 1 in 28 across Australia, giving the shire an unwanted reputation. With property damage and break and enters also among the most common crimes in the region.
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"Last week we had a bin and seat ripped apart at the POW camp only days prior to the Breakout Commemoration event," Ms Childs said.
"We have seen vandalism from small incidents of graffiti to toilet paper ripped up and spread through parks, bins burnt out, park chairs and benches cut into many pieces, play equipment disassembled, and even toilets filled with sand."
