A Gloucester mural which honours lost loved ones and icons of the city such as Gloucester Rugby has been vandalised with graffiti. The Brick Project Community Interest Company has been in place at Fountain Square off Westgate Street throughout the summer and into autumn with the aim to create a large scale mural in the pedestrian tunnel.
Located opposite the Folk of Gloucester, residents from the close-knit community have been invited to contribute a painting on an individual brick to reflect the identity of the community. But now residents and organisers woke up yesterday (Wednesday October 9) to find it had been tagged with graffiti which reads: “Vote Reform UK and all this will go away, Smile”.
Dan Petley, who grew up in Gloucester, is Director of the Brick Project. Dan said: “I want people to have the right to say whatever they want to say but this is very frustrating. Nobody approached us to say they wanted to write this on the wall and the idea of the project is that everybody is representing people.”
(Image: Brick Project CIC)
Fraisia Bruist-Papazian who is also involved in the creation says the Brick Project is something “we’ve done in other locations (for example Knowle West in Bristol) and this has never happened. I guess we’ve always assumed that even if people tag, they’ll just add their tag to a brick just the same as everyone else.”
“I really don’t know what this tag is getting at,” Fraisia adds. “Maybe it is something to do with the fact that there’s a lot of flags reflecting the diversity of Gloucester, which is of course, very sad if that’s the message. I don’t think it speaks to anyone and the words suggest that they’re against togetherness and unity.”
Painting of the bricks is ongoing and the graffiti has not deterred residents, children and the organisers to stop the project as they are painting over the black words as quickly as they can.
One resident who lives close to Fountain Square told Gloucestershire Live that they are very upset with whoever has tagged the project because lots of bricks were painted to remember loved ones in Gloucester who have passed away as well as icons that mean a lot to the community such as Gloucester Rugby and The Ramarni Trust.”
“We don’t know who has done it”, one resident said and another resident who has been painting said: “this is really upsetting because children have been painting this, what message does it send?”
In a statement Gloucestershire Police said officers received a report of graffiti being sprayed on a piece of public artwork on Fountain Square, Gloucester overnight (Tuesday October 8).
Inspector Ash Gardner from Gloucester Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “It is sad when something that has been produced to brighten our beautiful city is damaged in such a thoughtless manner. We will not tolerate any criminal damage or anti-social behaviour like this and we will continue to work with our partner agencies to tackle the issue of graffiti.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Gloucestershire Constabulary through the website, quoting incident 93 of 9 October to this link.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
