Community Pay Back Scheme

[Greenleaves]

Morning All

Our allotment site has been approached by the local council and probation service about the CPBS clearing overgrown plots and growing produce on two plots for the local community.

Obviously this has been met with mixed feelings, I for one believe everyone has the right to make a mistake and atone for it but others fear it is inviting trouble.

Does anyone have experience of this and if so were the results positive?

thanks in advance

Mike

[Two_Sheds]

It happened on our site years ago. The "prisoners" (offenders? probationers?) were very much staffed and didn't mix with the allotmenteers at all ~ they all kept their distance.

They did the work, and went again.

We also had them clearing up our cycle lane area, scraping back soil from the tarmac, picking litter, cutting & shredding overgrown trees. They did a really good job, and I emailed back to thank them. Again, the offenders didn't mix with the public who were walking by, but I had a chat with their supervisors, pointing out the bits I particularly wanted cutting back

My BiL was a supervisor for this kind of work in the community, and he says they were a load of lazy b8ggers who just wanted a day-long fag break

[Hans Mum]

Mixed feelings on this....we had them on site for a couple of months....tried not to advertise the stuff we had on site (eg petrol equip etc) but.....(& it might be a coincidence) we did have an increased amount of nocturnal activity on site.

Also they were very restricted as to what they could & couldn't do....for instance they were not allowed to move a pile of well rotted horse manure (using spades & wheelbarrows!!) but could move chippings.

Some days by the time they arrived, then had their allocated breaks & lunch we were lucky to get a couple of hours work out of them maybe we just had a badly organised team which is not the guys fault.

We have decided not to use their services in future.

[alldigging]

There's a 'community' allotment that feeds a day centre that uses community payback at the weekend.

[green thing]

Our local voluntary park group did this last year
They have very little funding and were grateful for the
Extra help with all the harder jobs.
They did alot of work.

About two week later the shipping container in
The park was broken into and all the valuable
Item disappeared.

Coincidence ?

[Alison]

About two week later the shipping container in
The park was broken into and all the valuable
Item disappeared.

Coincidence ?

Without any actual evidence then quite probably.


Sent from my iPad using Grow Your Own Forum

[Greenleaves]

Point taken people, the decision will be by ballot but think I know wheremy x will go now.

thanks really value your opinion

Mike

[Jeanied]

Just read this - apparently community payback were brought in to help clear the less well tended plots on our site last year. This included one of my 2 plots. Needless to say my wooden deep beds were wrecked and my black currant and gooseberry bushes were decimated. My metal watering can was stomped in. But at least they strimmed back the weeds which was more than I had done

[andy_j]

Im the head gardener at a local authority garden in Brighton (see link in my signature) and ive been using CPB people for around 4 years both supervised group sessions and individual placements.

They are generally a good bunch...many just want to do their time and get on with it. We've had some superb people who i'd happily employ full time if i could. You do get a few pillocks, most are on the group sessions.

If you decide to use them, make sure it's for jobs you don't want to do.....don't have them hoeing your show bench parsnips for example because they'll all be dead by the end of the day. make sure no one leaves sheds open, tools or machinery on view or personal possessions lying around.

Get them going the donkey work, the real gutty stuff, the hard work....that's what i do.

if you have any questions, i'll happily answer them but generally speaking, i'd have no problems using them.

[binley100]

We had them on site for a few years. They even had their own plot. Some of them were helpful but in the end the pros were outweighed by the cons and they got voted off. They used to leave the toilets in a disgusting state, they threw dtones through gh windows, they used to wander about unsupervised and a couple of people felt intimidated so much so they hid in their shed and one of the supervisors let someone in to dump a big pile of clay. I think with better supervision they might still be there but tbh they all looked on it as a skive.. even those meant to be in charge.
I wouldn't agree to have them back