Support for Lakenham Way initiative

10.40.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 2nd Oct 2007

Hereward Cooke

Lakenham ward Councillor and Liberal Democrat leader Hereward Cooke is delighted with a new initiative whereby a popular city footpath is to be cleared regularly by groups of offenders who have been allocated unpaid community work. The team will clear rubbish and graffiti form Lakenham Way.

This is how the story was reported in the Norwich Evening News:

Offenders Clean up city footpath

Offenders are being given the opportunity to give something back to the community by clearing the way through a popular Norwich footpath.

People using Lakenham Way have often complained about the state of the footpath, in particular the overgrown hedges and rubbish left there.

The pathway will now be regularly cleared and monitored in the first initiative of its kind in the city. Work to be carried out regularly by offenders who have been allocated unpaid work as a punishment by a court will include the removal of graffiti, rubbish collection, hedge cutting, cleaning and path clearing.

Portia Griffey, unpaid work scheme manager at Norfolk probation service, said "I think the benefits to the public are huge as it raises the whole feel of the place when it's clean and tidy. With offenders it can help to give them an understanding of residents living in that area who have to live with the graffiti and litter."

Hereward Cooke, councillor for the Lakenham ward and Liberal Democrat leader, said "The community service is a vital way of bringing offenders into the community and they're organised and supervised, which means it's a very good way of making use of their skills."

The Lakenham and Tuckswood Safer Neighbourhood Team was set up in early August to tackle problems people say affect their quality of life.

PC Leo Blyth said the latest measure was organised as a response to people's fears about using the overgrown, rubbish-strewn path.