Payback for Depot Road

Monday June 7, 2010

Offenders have been lending a helping hand to tidy up one of the borough’s most infamous eyesores.

A section of land at the junction of Wood Lane and Depot Road, White City has been in a state of disrepair for several years and land registry searches have been inconclusive as to who it belongs to.

So the council has joined forces with London Probation amd the Met Police and arranged for eight offenders to clear up the area as part of their community payback schemes.

The offenders, have each spent five hours a week for the past month returning the strip of land to its former glory.

Armed with heavy duty gloves, goggles, shears, rakes and litter pickers, the group have worked tirelessly to clean up the area.

Councillor Greg Smith, cabinet member for residents’ services, said: “Community payback is no substitute to a proper punishment, but is a welcome initiative to make the criminals put something back into the community they stole from or vandalised. This is an excellent way of showing how offenders can compensate for the crimes they have committed and repay their debt to society. The area is now clear and tidy and this is just one of many schemes where we work closely with the probation service to benefit the borough.”

Chris Powell, payback manager for the probation service, said: "The council is very supportive of the work we do and our guys work really hard doing jobs like tidying up eyesores, cutting back overgrown areas and clearing places that residents think attract crime or are unsafe. The guys are happy to put the time in, especially when they see that all their effort has made a difference.”

If you know a part of the borough that may benefit from a community payback scheme like this, contact 07894 176 943.