Serving the Community in Edinburgh
An Edinburgh road blighted by rubbish and fly-tipping has been cleaned up by people serving community sentences.
People carrying out unpaid work as part of community payback orders (CPOs) cleared rubbish that had been dumped in Ferry Road.
Locals had asked for help as the rubbish was creating a hazard – and they’ve thanked the unpaid work teams now the area can be safely used by residents.
This was one of a number of projects across the city that have benefitted from people being supervised to carry out unpaid work as part of a CPO.
Almost 50,000 hours of unpaid work were carried out across Edinburgh last year transforming many communities.
Jane Meagher, council leader and chair of the Edinburgh Partnership, said: “Community Payback Orders (CPOs) make sure people who have broken the law give something back to their local area.
“Unpaid work benefits communities while also helping individuals develop new skills, work in a team and make a positive contribution.
Across Edinburgh, neglected and unused spaces have been transformed and thousands of unpaid work hours invested in projects that make a real difference to communities.”
Another recent project involved an unpaid work women’s group clearing weeds and bushes outside Leith Theatre, making a fire lane around the building safe and accessible.
Unpaid workers also painted and removed graffiti and cleared drainage areas at Edinburgh Leisure’s Gyle Park Pavilion community centre.
A group has also been working with the Turing Trust to refurbish unwanted IT equipment so it can be reused by disadvantaged communities at home and abroad rather than going to landfill. This year the charity has sent more than 2,000 computers and 540 monitors to support students in Malawi.
A spokesman for the Turing Trust, said: “We’ve been proud and grateful to work with the unpaid work team who’ve helped us keep monitors and other devices out of landfill and get them into reuse helping others, while providing rewarding work for those doing unpaid work.
“It’s a great example of tying things together for mutual benefit, and we’ve been proud to be part of it.”
