Councils want eyesore building owners to pay OWNERS of vacant and vandalised eyesore buildings across NSW have been put on notice - councils want the right to clean them up and pass on the bill. Warringah Council will call on the state government next week to beef up powers to access private land without consent for the sole purpose of cleaning off graffiti. Mayor Michael Regan will call for councils to be given authority to pass on the cost of the removal of graffiti to the landowner "so that local residents are not held accountable for these enormous costs." "Owners will be much more interested in locking up these sites, they will quickly start doing something about it after the first few bills," he said. Do you think council's should have this power? Current graffiti laws only allow councils to remove graffiti on private property without the owner's consent if the vandalism is visible from a public space and it must be carried out from public land at the council's expense. Mr Regan said he received constant complaints to clean up a "deplorable" vacant building opposite Warringah Mall that could not be reached from the footpath. "To clean it up, you would have to close the street and put a crane in and manoeuvre it around - it is outrageous," he said. Give us some basic power to go on the site and get rid of it. In some cases we are powerless when it comes to accessing these buildings from public land. He said even when the council was given permission to enter a private property the cost to ratepayers was in the tens of thousands of dollars. "It truly is quite incredulous that the residents of Warringah be expected to cover these costs," he said. The responsibility should lie solely with that of the private landowner to take preventative measures to stop people from vandalising the site and, accordingly, for any of the costs incurred with the removal of the graffiti. Warringah Council spends more than $250,000 a year on graffiti management programs, including rapid removal, a graffiti hotline and collaboration with police in taking action against offenders. It even asks the community members to sign up as "graffiti volunteers." "The solution lies with the state government reviewing the legislative powers of councils to enter private property," Mr Regan said. The legislation should be clear that councils in all cases are able to pass on the cost of the removal to the land owners by way of a rates levy or alternatively be charged for the services at the point of sale/transfer of the land. Warringah Council will vote on the matter tomorrow.