Community bulb planting in Holme on Spalding Moor

The entrance to Holme on Spalding Moor will look a whole lot brighter next spring when the 8,000 daffodil bulbs planted over the past weekend grow and come into flower.  The Parish Council had originally put forward the idea, and the idea ‘grew’ to include sponsorship and using offenders serving their community sentences to do the heavy work.

This is a really great example of what can be done when people and organisations work together, and follows a lot of other good community driven projects we see in Holme on Spalding Moor.  It is right that offenders on the Community Payback scheme are actually seen serving their sentence and their labour is put to meaningful use – and to see them on the side of the road in their bright orange vests did exactly that.

A big thank you to all those Parish Councillors, members of the community, the cadets, and young people, who all came to help plant the daffodil bulbs.  I sure it's going to make a stunning view to the entrance of the village next springtime.

Appreciation must also go to Allensway Recycling Ltd who sponsored the display by paying 50% of the cost of bulbs and Andrew Rhodes Plant Hire for providing the turf cutter and other equipment free of charge.

Offenders on the Community Payback Scheme work with the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to repair Goole road

The lack of maintenance of the unadopted road behind the shops at Goole’s Colonels Walk has been a contentious issue for a considerable time. Goole North Ward Councillor Keith Moore brought the issue to the Goole and Howdenshire Local Action Team (LAT) as an issue that was difficult to solve, and was having an adverse affect on local residents and businesses.

Cllr Keith Moore, LAT Officer Tania Pells and myself, in my role as LAT Chairman, came up with an innovative solution by bringing on board the Humberside Probation Service and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to get the work done.

Six offenders on the Community Payback scheme, who live in Goole and were carrying out their punishment in the town, provided the labour, while the Probation Service and the Council carried out the supervision and provided the tools to do the job. Within 4 hours the potholes had been filled in and the road rolled and compacted.

The positive comments afterwards from the local businesses and residents, was all that was needed to demonstrate a job well done!

Having offenders carrying out their punishment through the Community Payback scheme in the area in which they live is positive, having them working on community projects is beneficial, but having them work with other organisations like the Council to deliver solutions to identified problems is a way of maximising impact for a given amount of money.

This joining up of activity and thinking is a way of making public funds go further, possibly something we need to see more of in the future as money becomes tighter?

(Pictured with Cllr Keith Moore, residents, local business people and the ERYC staff - needless to say, and understandably, the offenders on the Community Payback didn't want to be photographed)