THANKS to a suggestion by Cllr Jane Taylor, vice chairman of Kingskerswell Parish Council, the authority got in touch with its Local Community Payback Team, who arrange for offenders to work on projects to pay back the community for their crimes.

The parish council wanted to find out if they could carry out projects and odd jobs for the council, for the benefit of the community.

Cllr John Radford and Juliette Thompson, clerk of Kingskerswell Parish Council, met with Placement Coordinator, Darren Bonner, to discuss what the team could do

The first project agreed on was a ditch clearance at Churchway Lane; the group supervisor Matt Skinner attended with a group of three and the team have made great progress over the last couple of weeks.

Positive comments have been received from residents and the parish council hope to keep the team busy with plenty more projects in and around Kingskerswell in the near future.