Offenders put things right (From Salisbury Journal)

Offenders put things right

6:50pm Monday 20th February 2012 in New Forest News By Miranda Robertson

OFFENDERS have given a |village skate park a fresh new look as part of a payback scheme to atone for their crimes.

Dorset Probation Service’s Community Payback scheme has given the skate park in West Moors a facelift.

The skate ramps were covered in graffiti and the BMX track was unusable due to grass and weeds overgrowing.

With the area looking as it did, West Moors had seen an increase in litter around the park, anti-social behaviour, criminal damage to scooters and bikes and bullying, with young people not wanting to use the area, say the police.

PCSO Steve Winning liaised with the parish council to allow offenders to clean up the park.

The team of workers gave the skate ramps a fresh coat of paint, cleared the BMX track of shrubs and weeds and cut the grass.

Travis Perkins, on Ferndown Industrial Estate, provided the paintbrushes and rollers.

Community Payback is responsible for the delivery of unpaid work across the whole of Dorset, by offenders sentenced to between 40 and 300 hours of community work by the courts.

Offenders must work an average of seven hours per day for one day per week.