Offensive behaviour in Wolverhampton

The voice of Wolverhampton

It’s great to see democracy in action. A few weeks ago I posted an item commenting on the sudden cleanliness of the canals in the Wolverhampton area, following the introduction of Community Payback – a canal clean up project forming part of the local offender rehabilitation programme.

I was therefore interested to see an item in the Wolverhampton Express and Star explaining that this initiative emerged following a public vote by the good people of Wolverhampton on what community service offenders should undertake. Clearly, the local inhabitants love their network of canals and voted for the water based initiative we saw in action.

The offenders have patently swept the Wolverhampton area clean and have now moved onto the Bradley Arm which, if it is still anything like it was during our misguided attempt at navigation in 2007, will offer enough material to keep them busy for the rest of 2009. Top tip – try raking the canal bed for polythene bags as well as clearing the margins and bridgeholes of the more obvious debris. The canal bed is littered with thousands of non biodegradable bags, which represent the main obstacle to navigation.

As Government Crime and Justice Adviser Louise Casey said: “The people in Wolverhampton want to know that criminals in Wolverhampton are being made to pay back for their crimes.

Community Payback schemes make this a reality and, very importantly, they also now give the public a say in what criminals must actually do to serve their punishment and pay back to local communities.”

It’s great to see people power in action.