On this page you will find examples of the hundreds of projects in which offenders supervised by Bedfordshire Probation Trust carry out unpaid work as part of a community sentence.
Community Payback projects:
- benefit the local community
- are non-profit-making
- do not take paid work away from others
- are challenging and demanding
- are worthwhile and constructive
March 2012
Project name: Action Day
Beneficiary: Leighton Buzzard community
Area: Leighton Buzzard
About the project: Offenders on Community Payback took part in an action day held at Meadow Way in Leighton Buzzard this month, working alongside police, fire services, recycling department and various other groups. Our team worked alongside Central Bedfordshire Council workers removing rubbish and graffiti.
Start and finish: 28 March 2012
February 2012
Project name: Carpark
Beneficiary: Luton Borough Council
Area: Luton
About the project: A carpark attached to a shop in Bury Park was badly in need of a clear up and pictures appeared in the local paper. Luton Borough Council asked Bedfordshire Probation for help. Over three days Community Payback offenders collected more than 150 bags of rubbish and a sharps box full of syringes. The owners of the shop are now putting up a gated fence to stop people congregating in the carpark.
Start and finish: February 2012
November 2011
Project name: Gardening
Beneficiary: The Willows, a supported housing scheme for older people
Area: Leighton Buzzard
About the project: Managers at the residential home wanted the grounds altered for easy maintenance and invited BPT to bring in its Community Payback offenders to do the work. Offenders have cut back bushes, planted new shrubs and paved a patio area.
Start and finish: From November until early 2012
October 2011
Project name: General maintenance
Beneficiary: Lower Linslade School
Area: Leighton Buzzard
About the project: Painting and decorating work on the school dining room and hall was carried out earlier this year by offenders sentenced to Community Payback. Now the Community Payback crews are carrying out conservation and gardening work.
Start and finish: Ongoing until early 2012
September 2011
Project name: Better lives
Beneficiary: Bedford Hospital
Area: Bedford
About the project: The Victoria Stroke Unit at the hospital wanted to improve the garden outside the unit to help patients recuperate faster. The staff did not have time to carry out this work so asked Community Payback for help with things like painting planters and benches, raking leaves and cutting grass and installing decking where patients can sit out.
Start and finish: Ongoing
August 2011
Project name: Garden maintenance
Beneficiary: Arragon Housing Association tenants
Area: Biggleswade
About the project: Tenants with disabilities and older people living in some of Aragon Housing Association homes were unable to keep their gardens tidy. So care provider Bromford Support asked Bedfordshire Probation if it could provide Community Payback offenders to do the work for them.
Start and finish: Ongoing project, launched July 2011
July 2011
Project name: Railings
Beneficiary: Central Bedfordshire Council
Area: Dunstable
About the project: The council contacted Bedfordshire Probation's Community Payback team in early July to see if offenders could refurbish a quarter of a mile of railings in Bullspond Lane. Beds Probation was delighted to help and over several weeks offenders rubbed the railings down, the undercoated and topcoated the railings, receiving a very positive response from council and passers-by alike.
Start and finish: July
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May 2011
Project name: Tulips
Beneficiary: Bedford Borough Council
Area: Bedford
About the project: Offenders ordered by the court to carry out unpaid work for the benefit of the community worked alongside council staff in pulling up exhausted tulip bulbs that contributed to this year's Spring bedding display along the Embankment.
Start and finish: One day project
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April 2011
Project name: Clean up
Beneficiary: Goldington Green Lower School
Area: Goldington and Putnoe
About the project: Goldington Green Lower School offers education to children aged 4 to 9, including those with special needs. The school has an environmental area in need of maintenance. Community Payback offenders went in to tidy up and weed four raised beds and paint the fence enclosing the area.
Start and finish: Three days during the Easter school holiday
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February 2011
Project name: Clean up
Beneficiary: Luton Crown Court
Area: Luton
About the project: Community Payback were asked to clear the service road behind Luton Crown Court of leaves and debris to make it pleasanter for people to use. Luton Borough Council also removed rubbish bags the same day.
Start and finish: One day project
January 2011
Project name: Nature garden
Beneficiary: Linslade Lower School
Area: Leighton Buzzard
About the project: Community Payback are helping to turn a "once-upon-a-time" garden back into a nature garden, complete with pond, wooden seats, log piles, bird feeders etc, so the children can use it in the Spring. Offenders will also be painting the school hall during the school's half-term alongside school governors and members of the Parent Teachers Association.
Start and finish: Ongoing since October 2010, two days a week
December 2010
Project name: Path
Beneficiary: 101st Scout Group
Area: Addison Howard Park, Kempston
About the project: Children aged six to 15 use a pre-fabricated hut for Beaver and Scout activities. Equipment is stored in a large container, but the groups were finding it difficult to load and unload. Community Payback was asked to remedy this by creating a path leading to and from the container. The offenders cleared leaves and nettles from around the container then dug out a trench for the path, filled it in with sand and cement and laid paving slabs on top.
Start and finish: Three sessions, one day a week, ending in December 2010
November 2010
Project name: Ground-clearance
Beneficiary: Totternhoe Parish Council
Area: Totternhoe, near Dunstable
About the project: The project involves demolishing sheds, clearing land, digging up rubble and moving earth so council can begin to use the land.
Start and finish: From Summer 2010 to end of year
October 2010
Project name: Cemetery-tidy
Beneficiary: Holy Trinity Church Council
Area: Luton
About the project: The church's three-acre cemetery in Trinity Road, Luton, had become very overgrown, so Bedfordshire Probation's Community Payback team were invited to bring offenders along one day a week to sort it out. Offenders cleared moss from pathways, cut back overgrown trees and bushes, cut the grass and generally tidied up. Now the site is both more accessible and much pleasanter to visit for both local people visiting the graves of loved ones and ramblers enjoying the plants and other wildlife living on the site.
Start and finish: Autumn 2010; expected to start again in April 2011
September 2010
Project name: Football
Beneficiary: 61 Football Club
Area: Luton
About the project: The premises of the 61 Football Club, at Kingsway, Luton, has been continually vandalised and was badly in need of a clean-up. The charity-run football club, run by volunteers for local young people, contacted the Community Payback team at Bedfordshire Probation who were only too happy to help. This month offenders painted over graffiti on the clubhouse, stand and dugout. They also painted fence poles and did a general tidy up of the ground.
Start and finish: The project took place in September, but now the project has ended, the team is being replaced by a single offender, who will work there every Saturday, helping with preparing the ground for matches and general upkeep of club
July 2010
Project name Path clearance
Beneficiary: Luton Council
Area: Dallow Downs
About the project: Situated between the Farley Hill Estate near Luton is a vast area where offenders are creating and maintaining new paths for recreational walkers through the trees and bushes. As the area has Medieval terracing, mature trees and orchids, walkers are attracted from other areas. Offenders supervised by Bedfordshire Probation work a minimum of 60 hours a week in total and sometimes two or three times that. This is very much about working in partnership. Luton Council's warden for the area advises and instructs the Community Payback teams in their work.
Start and finish: Began in early Spring and Community Payback teams will be visiting up to three times a week throughout the Summer
June 2010
Project name: Harrold-Odell Country Park
Beneficiary: Bedford Borough Council
Area: Harrold
About the project: This is a long term project and Bedfordshire Probation invited High Sheriff Daniel Hanbury to come and see Community Payback in action on 16 June. To mark his visit, the High Sheriff planted a grapevine in an orchard cleared by a crew of offenders.
Start and finish: Began approximately 2005 and is ongoing
May 2010
Project name: Crime prevention
Beneficiary: Aspley Guise parish council and local community
Area: Aspley Guise, near Milton Keynes
About the project: Offenders built a natural barrier to prevent people from committing criminal damage by breaking a fence to get through to the local golfcourse. The offenders used the branches and twigs they had previously cut from alongside a pathway to block off the fence separating the golf course from the neighbouring sports centre.
Start and finish: The work took two sessions to complete and a Community Payback crew will be sent back to the site one day a month for maintenance and litter-picking
April 2010
Project name: Litter-pick
Beneficiary: Visitors to Cowslip Meadow Nature Reserve
Area: Luton
About the project: Offenders spent three days taking part in a project organised by Luton Council
Start and finish: The work took three sessions to complete
March 2010
Project name: Toilet Refurb
Beneficiary: Alban Neve Deaf Centre
Area: Luton
About the project: Five offenders and a supervisor worked in conjunction with four Barclays Bank staff members and Ruth Wooster from the Centre, preparing and repainting the toilets. The paint came from the Repaint Scheme, run by Luton Borough Council and to which people take paint for recycling. Barclays Bank donated £500 for equipment and materials, under their grant scheme
Start and finish: The work took three sessions to complete
November 2009
Project name: Community Centre painting
Beneficiary: Meadow Way Community Centre
Area: Leighton Buzzard
About the project: Offenders painted the outside of the centre alongside community centre volunteers so it can be rented out. The work will help improve facilities for young people and families living on the estate. The paint was donated by Homebase.
Start and finish: Began 5 November
October 2009
Project Name: Ground-clearance
Beneficiary: Alban Neve Society for the Deaf Centre
Area: Luton
About the project: A Community Payback crew cut back overgrown shrubs and vegetation outside the centre. The ground cleared at the back will be turned into extra car-parking spaces.
Start and finish: The work began in July and was completed in October
September 2009
Project name: Milburn Road
Beneficiary: Pilgrim's Housing Association
Area: Putnoe
About the project: Once a month offenders visit a communal garden, cultivating the soil, dead-heading the flowers, weeding etc
Start and finish: The project began October 2008 and was still continuing in September 2009
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