The Ministry of Justice’s ‘Community Payback’ deploys offenders to work on projects to pay back the community for their crimes, for example by removing graffiti, clearing wasteland or painting.
Another one of the local Scout groups – this time in Ely – recently proposed the decoration of their scout hut as a project, and I went along to see the progress being made, and discuss with the East of England Probation Service how we can increase the impact of these sorts of schemes across our area.
Locally, the service is due to expand the Anti-Social Behaviour Pilot, which will mean that a Community Payback team is sent to work within 48 hours of an issue arising, as per the Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, released earlier this year.
