Beckenham Sainsbury’s Village Way car park lifts graffitied

Graham Pask is a regular shopper at the Sainsbury’s on High Street and so uses the Village Way car park regularly.

He says that the graffiti has remained in the lifts for at least six months.

The graffiti consists of a mixture of doodles written in what appears to be black marker, bubble writing tags, and text that reads: “Gov is ***”.

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Graham, 71, reported the vandalism numerous times to Bromley Council – but the graffiti removal was not actioned as the council do not own the lifts.

However, Graham was not aware that the lifts were not Bromley Council’s responsibility until recently.

He highlighted the fact that there is a sign within the car park which says if there are any problems with the car park, then you should contact the council.

Graham’s wife made three reports to the Council to notify them about the situation, but they were directed to make the reports online.

The graffiti in the Village Way car park lifts

Graham told the News Shopper: “All four walls are absolutely covered in graffiti - they haven't done the ceiling yet.

“There is a particular offensive four-letter word in there.

“I mean if a mum comes in with kids ‘mum what does that word mean?’ – It is not acceptable is it?

“I send the reports through a site called MyBromley and then MyBromley says they have sent it through to the car parks department and then close the inquiry.

“Why don't they keep inquiry open until the graffiti is sorted?

“That really annoys me.

“I’ve reported it time and time again and nothing gets done.”

The Council’s responses to the reports informed Graham that they had been “passed on to the car parking team” and were being investigated – before then closing them.

Sainsbury’s has now said that they “are in the process of cleaning the affected area”.

A spokesperson from Bromley Council explained that typically, the reports which were made to the council would be passed on to Sainsbury’s so that the problem would be rectified. 

Graham added: “I did see some workman doing maintenance work on the lifts a few months ago but after they had finished the graffiti was still there.

“They might take the loose rubbish out, like, cups and sweet wrappers but that's about as far as they go."

The graffiti in the Village Way car park lifts

A Bromley Council spokesperson said: “The Council will and does remove graffiti that is visible from the highway but the lift being referred to is managed by Sainsbury’s, who would also be responsible for removing the graffiti in this instance.

“In light of the latest reports, we have contacted Sainsbury’s to draw their attention to this latest situation.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We are in the process of cleaning the affected area and we would like to thank our customers for their patience while we complete this work.”

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