OFFENDERS given community service punishments are getting their hands dirty in a bid to make a park safer for visitors.

Overgrown bushes and shrubbery surrounding an avenue of lime trees in Mercer Park, Clayton-le-Moors, are being removed to allow more light from street lamps to penetrate through to the walkways.

They are then due to be replaced with a variety of species that will only grow to 5ft tall, with flowers to provide added colour to the park.

Yvonne Wilson, from the Friends of Mercer Park, said: "The bushes can make the park seem quite dark and a bit daunting so we wanted to remove them to improve the feeling of community safety. Their replacements will also add to the bio-diversity of the park.

"The cost of this project would have been too prohibitive for us to carry out alone so we are really grateful that the probation service has helped us out."

The Probation Service has provided a number of people to carry out the labour in the park, all of whom have been ordered by the courts to carry out unpaid work as part of the community payback' scheme. The scheme provides 85,000 hours of community work in East Lancashire each year.

Stephen Bentley, unpaid work co-ordinator for Accrington Probation office, said: "It is excellent for offenders to see that it is their communities that can benefit from their work, and inevitably they take pride in their efforts. This makes for better results for the communities and non-profit organisations that we assist."

The offenders are being assisted by staff from Hyndburn Council's parks department and the work has been going on for a month.

Coun Tony Dobson, deputy leader of Hyndburn Council, explained: "We are really pleased with the progress so far and the park is looking lighter and brighter already. This is a great opportunity for people to give something back to their community, and Mercer Park has really benefitted."

Clayton ward councillor Nick Collingridge added: "We are grateful to the team who have done a great job, and residents have been telling us that they are really pleased with the results so far."