'˜You're making Hillsborough look like a ghetto'

A Sheffield business owner has pleaded with graffiti taggers to stop vandalising his empty premises.
A note to the graffiti artist has been left in the window of this empty building, calling for the tagging to stop. Picture: Marie Caley NSST Graffiti MC 5A note to the graffiti artist has been left in the window of this empty building, calling for the tagging to stop. Picture: Marie Caley NSST Graffiti MC 5
A note to the graffiti artist has been left in the window of this empty building, calling for the tagging to stop. Picture: Marie Caley NSST Graffiti MC 5

The desperate owner left a note in the shop unit’s window on Middlewood Road after waging a war against vandals.

The building, once an estate agent’s, has been empty for more than four years.

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The anonymous owner accuses the vandals of making Hillsborough look like a ‘ghetto’ and has pledged to keep removing the graffiti out of respect for neighbours.

Hillsborough was revealed to be among Sheffield’s graffiti hotspots as part of The Star’s Clean It Up campaign last month. Taggers have daubed paint on walls, signs and on shops.

One anonymous commenter said: “Hillsborough is a real mess with mindless tags all over the place.

“It’s so unfair that decent people have to pay for others’ selfish behaviour.”

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The businessman’s full note, typed on a piece of A4 paper, reads: “The shop has now been empty for four years. I have had the graffiti removed on two occasions because it is not fair to local people and local businesses to have Hillsborough looking like a ghetto.

“I have not informed the police or installed CCTV.

“Can we now call it a ‘score draw’? Please write OK - not all over the window, but beneath this space. I will once again arrange for the graffiti to be removed.”

Sheffield Council said it had received nearly 70 requests to remove graffiti in the area between April 2015 and March this year.