Offenders help transform Cundall village church |
Offenders in Harrogate and Northallerton have carried out hundreds of hours of Community Payback, helping to spruce up Cundall Church, near Thirsk - a valuable and important asset to the local community.
Over the past few months offenders, sentenced to unpaid work - commonly known as Community Payback, have been able to offer a substantial helping hand by undertaking a raft of maintenance and restoration jobs that could not normally be completed on such a limited budget.
The nave of the nineteenth century church was fitted with scaffolding to allow teams of offenders to remove peeling paint, decorate and polish the roof timbers. Among the offenders were experienced builders and plasterers, whose skills were used to replaster the vestry and parts of the main tower. In the graveyard, skilled wallers were used to rebuild more than 50 metres of the perimeter stone wall. Offenders have now been given the task of clearing undergrowth in the graveyard and resetting headstones.
So far, over scores of offenders have been involved in the project, wearing orange hi-visability vests so the local community can see justice in action.
Peter Stanley, Treasurer and Secretary of Cundall parochial church council, said: “The church desperately needed repainting and decorating. The Community Payback team has done smashing work - it is really professional. The job is absolutely first class and the church has been left spotless.”
He said the church had been quoted as much as £20,000 for the renovation work. In the event, the church only had to pay out £5,000 for scaffolding, materials and incidental expenses, as all labour was provide free by local offenders, under the supervision of the York and North Yorkshire Probation Trust. |
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