Offenders carry out £4 million in labour
Convicts completed nearly £4 million worth of labour cleaning up grot spots and community buildings across the West Midlands and Staffordshire in the past year, it was revealed today.
Supervised offenders doing Community Payback were ordered to complete 651,170 hours of work over the year to April, the Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust said. Projects included picking up litter, renovating community centres, clearing undergrowth and graffiti.
The number of hours based on the minimum wage of £6.08 per hour would have amounted to combined £3,959,113.60 in that time.
Around 5,000 offenders were involved in the programme.
In Staffordshire, including Stoke-on-Trent, 155,670 hours of labour were completed. In the West Midlands, excluding Birmingham, the most hours were completed in Wolverhampton, with 58,100, compared to 55,070 in Sandwell, 47,300 for Dudley and 46,790 in Walsall.
Garden
Councillor Ian Jones, the ruling cabinet's member for neighbourhood services in Sandwell, said: "The community projects they carry out save the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, and in these economic times, this is all the more important."
Councillor Zahid Ali, Walsall's chief of public protection, added: "Probation has done a fantastic job and for the service to be near £4 million worth region-wide is most welcome.
"We don't have any say over sentences, but time given for community payback benefits everyone."
Recent projects have included clearing the garden of Walsall's Blakenhall Community Centre, painting the canal footbridge at Alrewas and washing off graffiti outside St Giles CofE Church, Rowley Regis.
Residents can nominate a project by visting www.swmprobation.gov.uk or calling 0121 248 2688.
