Out and about this Sunday and impressed to see ‘Rich’ from the graffiti-busting team at B&NES busy working on the bridge linking Kensington Meadows across the River Avon to the lane leading up to the tow path of the Kennet and Avon canal.
He was treating the paint-spray vandalism on the concrete structure which is first coated with a chemical solution to suck the paint out of the stone – which helps when it then comes to hosing it off.
This was a man-made surface but l am told much lower water pressure is used on Bath stone – as this can be easily damaged.
On into Sydney Gardens and something about one of the railway bridges caught my eye.
Here is a picture of this bridge l took some months ago with graffiti scrawls on both the outer and inner surface.
Here is the same view today. Seems the tunnel surface of the bridge nearest the track has been cleaned but the flat outer surface has not.
Now maybe Network Rail are half way through cleaning the bridge, but something l had heard already makes me suspicious.
I am told that before Network Rail erected the barrier fencing beside the track in Sydney Gardens, the boys from the B&NES grafitti-busting team were happy to clean the rail bridges too.
Since the fencing has gone up they have not ventured over it.
I cannot help but wonder whether Network Rail thinks it has done its rail-side of the bridge and that B&NES can remove the graffiti on the bit of the stone bridge that extends back into Sydney Gardens.
I hope this is not the case! It could be seen as very petty if we end up in an argument about who does which bit of a railway bridge when it comes to keeping on top of this mindless vandalism.
