Make Dorset's offenders pay their debts

Communities and organisations can have work carried out free of charge by those ordered to carry out community service by the courts.

The appeal for projects comes after two groups of offenders cleared up more than two dozen bags of rubbish at Chesil Beach on Portland.

Mike Thomas, who is unit manager of the Dorset Community Payback Scheme, said: “Chesil Beach is a suitable site to provide offenders with demanding, unpaid work.

“This enables them to payback their community for offences that they have committed against them.”

Community payback supervisor Graham Metcalfe supervised the two groups as they tidied up rubbish in the Chesil Beach area on the Portland beach road.

They donned high visibility jackets to tackle a stretch of the beach about a quarter of a mile long.

The pile of bags was collected by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council waste management services.

The offenders were tackling the unpaid work as requirements of community orders handed out by magistrates for less serious crimes. The community payback projects must not involve work which would normally be done by paid employees. Last year the Dorset Probation community payback unit supervised offenders over 85,000 hours.

The unit says that worked out on the basis of the national minimum wage, this is equivalent to around £500,000 worth of work for the community.

Mr Thomas said there was plenty of scope for communities and groups to apply for work to be carried out in their area.

He said: “We are encouraging communities to take this opportunity to identify work that they would like to see done and nominate their projects.”

The community payback has been running since 2005 and deals with around 650 offenders every year. Some of the projects undertaken have included clearance work on the Rodwell Trail in Weymouth and removing graffiti from town centre walls.

Call the unit on 01929 556513 or email community.payback@dorset.probation.gsi.gov.uk to nominate a project.