YOUNG offenders on Portland are helping to create a £1.5 million visitor centre under an initiative by Portland Gas Storage Ltd.

A team of six young people from the Portland Young Offender Institution has been transforming the run down Old Engine Shed at East Weares.

Portland Gas is investing £1.5 million within a new charity, the Portland Gas Trust, to establish an attraction at the site focusing on geology, education and the environment.

Portland Gas Storage Ltd was recently awarded planning permission by Dorset County Council to create 14 gas storage caverns one and a half miles underneath Portland. The caverns will be capable of storing 1,000 million cubic metres of gas.

When the facility is connected to the National Grid it could supply five per cent of the nation's gas supply on a cold winter's day.