9 December
Offenders serving community work sentences in Nelson have assisted in the restoration of the suburb of Stoke after winds above hurricane force struck on 30 July.
Community Probation & Psychological Services (CPPS) Senior Community Work Supervisor Jeff Holden says 15 crews have provided manual assistance to the Nelson City Council in the clean-up.
“The offenders have helped clear debris in Isel Park, Murphy Street Reserve and the town’s main cemetery, Marsden Valley Cemetery. The storm hit the city’s main park, Isel Park hard with around one-third of trees being damaged or destroyed.
“The removal of fallen trees involved council staff sawing them into smaller pieces and the offenders manually removing the debris to chipping machines for disposal. The manual support was vital to the clearing as Council trucks and equipment could not access these areas.”
Nelson City Council Horticultural Supervisor Peter Grundy says the wind storm was the worst the city has experienced in 30 years, causing around one-and-a-half million dollars worth of damage to parks and reserves.
“Having the Department of Corrections provide these work parties to assist with clean-up has been a great help to the council and the restoration of the parks for the local community.
“Although the offenders have completed the work tasked to them, the Council will continue the final parts of the tidy-up including the removal of larger tree-stumps well into 2009.”
Jeff says this is just one example of the work conducted by community work offenders in Nelson.
“Offenders serving community work sentences upkeep the grounds of the Marsden Valley Cemetery and provide grounds maintenance to local schools and kindergartens on a regular basis, outside of school/kindergarten hours.”
Jeff says around three million hours of free-labour is provided to local communities across the country through community work sentences.
Community work is just one of the community based sentences imposed by the Courts and managed by CPPS. Last year CPPS managed 86,672 sentences and orders of which 55,086 were community work.
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