WHEN a Lytham school needed new security gates to keep criminals out it went straight to the experts - a team of prisoners.

For inmates of Kirkham Open Prison are building the gates and security signs shortly to be fitted at Lytham C of E Primary School.

The project is nothing unusual for the prison's community help team, which last year spent 25,000 hours helping not only schools, but churches, disabled groups, homes for the elderly and similar organisations.

Deputy governor Barry Rossiter said: "They do anything from decorating to laying out pathways, building disabled access, making hanging baskets or whatever is needed."

Every prisoner on the team, he emphasised, undergoes strict assessment to ensure they are a suitable risk to be allowed out into the community on licence.

Others stayed within the prison to produce the materials in the workshop.

In charge of the project is prison officer Dereck Waters who explained: "The governor's aim is to support the community in any way we can.

"We have around 20 on the team and at present they're working on 11 jobs, not just locally but as far afield as Yorkshire, where we've been making signs for Arthritis Care."

It makes sense for the clients since they pay only for the materials and perhaps travel or meal expenses, not the labour.

Meanwhile, Lytham C of E School, like most schools in the wake of the Dunblane massacre, has been strengthening all its security, with a £700 lock on the main entrance and locks on external classroom doors.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.