Offenders made to work on city car park

Six offenders on Community Payback orders, supervised by Lincolnshire Probation Trust, will help spruce up the Broadgate council car park in Lincoln on February 18.

They will help to paint the internal walls of the car park, in an initiative for offenders sentenced to a community order to give something back.

The scheme has been devised by the City of Lincoln Council and Lincolnshire Probation Trust, which supervises over 2,500 offenders every year.

Community Orders are an alternative to prison sentences or fines. They were introduced in April 2005, replacing all previous community sentences.

Richard Wright, Placement Manager with Lincolnshire Probation Trust said over 85,000 hours of Community Payback work were carried out across Lincolnshire.

“This equates to nearly 45 working years and is worth almost half a million pounds at the minimum adult wage,” he said.

The offenders were made to work on projects such as weeding and litter-picking, painting and decorating, gardening, as well as working in charity shops and caves.

City Councillor Hilton Spratt said he is looking forward to seeing the results at the Broadgate Car Park.

“Offenders have done work for us previously, including painting park railings and painting in the bus station and the statistics for re-offending following this scheme are far lower than those offences which involve very short prison sentences.

“We have a number of other initiatives in the pipeline, which we hope to do as and when resources and opportunities permit.”

The Lincolnshire Probation Trust has a form on its website where people can nominate non-profit making organisations to benefit from free work from offenders.

Source: City of Lincoln Council