Dyfed Powys Probation Trust

Offenders across England and Wales perform 6.5 million hours of Unpaid Work a year. In cash terms this represents over £30 million worth of labour. It is therefore a valuable resource to local communities. In Dyfed-Powys nearly 54,000 hours were completed by offenders on Unpaid Work in 2006/7. This equates to over £276,000 worth of free labour spent on community projects across Carmarthenshire, Powys, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. However, this work often goes un-noticed, so residents are being asked to play a part in deciding on the kind of work that they would like to see carried out.

All projects aim to combine hard work with the chance for offenders to learn vocation and important life skills. They help to reduce the risk of re-offending and therefore help to make the communities we live in safer places to be.

Do you have a Project idea?
Faith groups, businesses, community groups, voluntary groups, charities, schools and local authorities are being encouraged to nominate projects they would like to see the Probation Service get involved with. If the project is accepted and when the work is complete, it will be branded with the “Community Payback” logo or receive a “Community Payback” certificate to show where offenders have contributed positively to improving the neighbourhood.

Projects must meet the following criteria:
• It must benefit the local community
• It must not take paid work away from others
• No one must make a profit from the work
• It must be worthwhile, constructive and give offenders new skills
• Offenders must be seen to be putting something back into the local community.

To suggest a project please e-mail us at dppcommunity.payback@dyfed-powys.probation.gsi.gov.uk or see below for details of projects carried out in Dyfed-Powys.

Projects undertaken by offenders that have been of benefit to local communities in the Dyfed-Powys area include graffiti removal, litter and vegetation clearance, repairing and redecorating community centres and schools and environmental work such as restoring churchyards and play areas. Examples of recent projects include:

Gwili Railway, Carmarthen
Gwili Railway, Carmarthen has been short listed for the Westing House Signal Award for the conservation of their signal box which was built in 1895 and is still operational today. The bulk of the conservation work on the signal box has been done by offenders doing Unpaid Work as part of their Community Orders and supervised by Dyfed-Powys Probation.

Gwili railway signal box

The groups of offenders have spruced up the signal box by clearing undergrowth and painting. They have also repainted much of the platform. The railway is also set for expansion with offenders clearing trees ready to lay new track towards Carmarthen town.

Llanelli
The unpaid work projects in Llanelli have ranged from litter picking, where more than 300 bags of rubbish have been cleared from Llanelli Beach, over 110 bags of rubbish in Felinfoel, as well as many more bags of rubbish from the Sustrans Cycle Path and Morfa, to clearing gardens for the elderly through the Age Concern Gardening Scheme.

Other projects that offenders have undertaken include painting St Paul’s Family Centre in Bigyn, clearing vegetation at Old Road Cemetery, painting Llansaint Village Hall and working in Scope Charity Shop in Stepney Street.

Elderly Citizen’s Hall – Llangennech, Llanelli
The Hall was given a new lease of life with the help of offenders who redecorated the exterior and interior, including installing a fitted kitchen donated by a local branch of MFI.

St David’s Church – Llandewi Velfrey, Pembrokeshire
St David’s Church in Llandewi Velfrey has been smartened both inside and out. The church warden wrote: “The service has made an excellent contribution towards maintenance of a beautiful listed building. The supervisor and the offenders who worked with him were keen, motivated, helpful and several were highly skilled. Thank you very much it really has made a difference.”

Nolton Haven Reading Room, Pembrokeshire
The Village Reading Room/Hall in Nolton Haven, near Haverfordwest has been given a helping hand by offenders.

Nolton Reading Room

Offenders, sentenced to compulsory unpaid work as part of their Community Orders and supervised by Dyfed-Powys Probation Area, have worked hard to brighten up the Village Reading Room. They have painted the inside, including the loos and the woodwork. They have also cleared the vegetation from around the building and have replaced the rotten woodwork. They finished the project by renovating and re-painting the outside of the building.

Powys
The unpaid work projects in Powys have ranged from building raised beds for the patients to grow vegetables in the Community Garden at Ystradgynlais Hospital to repairing furniture and repainting the music room in Penrhos Youth Centre. Elderly residents have benefited from the gardening scheme in Brecon and offenders have worked with Communities First in the Penrhos Estate clearing fly-tipped rubbish from the estate.

Offenders have also been painting bollards and litter-picking in Ystradgynlais town centre. In Radnorshire projects have included revamping Knighton Church in Wales School and Howey Primary School in Llandrindod Wells, sprucing up inside and out the respite home for the Bracken Trust in Llandrindod and redecorating Pales Quaker meeting centre, Llandegley.

Y Dolydd, Llanfyllin, Powys
The grounds at Y Dolydd Workhouse in Llanfyllin have been given a significant make-over. One of the Trustees wrote “The organisation of the project has been first-class, and the supervisors have been extremely helpful and flexible in overseeing and managing a wide range of tasks. The offenders have done an outstanding job in clearing the site – parts of which were very overgrown and in cutting hedges, painting railings, clearing ditches etc has enabled us to move our restoration project forward sooner than expected. The Community Work Team have done a splendid job and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all the work they have done.”

Ceredigion
Unpaid work projects in have been undertaken across the whole of Ceredigion and have ranged from smartening up Aberporth Seafront, painting the benches and railings, painting & decorating Aberporth Community Centre, smartening up Bethania Chapel in Cardigan, revamping the interior and exterior of Aberaeron Memorial Hall and planting a garden at Cwmpadarn Primary School to clearing the graveyards of Llanwenog Chapel and Llanfihangel y Cruedd Chapels.

Painting Bethania Chapel, Cardigan

The elderly of Ceredigion have also benefited through garden maintenance with 35 gardens being done through Help the Aged and the Housing Department.

Primrose Hill Cemetery, Ceredigion
Primrose Hill Cemetery in Llanbadarn Fawr was allocated via Ceredigion County Council a further plot of land adjacent to the original cemetery. The entrance to this land has been cleared and a stoneclad block work wall has been built and several concrete bays have been created to hold bins. This work was undertaken by a group of offenders on Unpaid Work Orders supervised by Dyfed-Powys Probation Area.

We cannot do this without your help! We need to know about projects you think we could work on.
You can e-mail us at the following address:
dppcommunity.payback@dyfed-powys.probation.gsi.gov.uk

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