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Monday 10 Aug 2009

GRAFITTI CLEAN UP IS REPARATION BY LEEDS YOUNG OFFENDERS

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A group of five young people who have been convicted of offences in Leeds have cleaned up graffiti at Burley Park railway station and in Kirkstall this week as part of a scheme arranged by Network Rail and Leeds Youth Offending Service (YOS).

Network Rail works with youth offending teams across the country to educate young people about the dangers of misusing the railway. These young people were brought in to clean up Burley Park station and Kirstall sidings this week to carry out reparation and make amends for their behaviour by giving something back to the community.

Visiting the site, Greg Mulholland MP said: "I fully support this reparation scheme. Graffiti has a very negative effect on the community so it is great to see Network Rail and Leeds YOS working together to tackle this problem. I think the scheme will really help these young people to realise the effect of their previous actions and educate them to be more responsible in the future.”

James Barton, reparation co-ordinator from Leeds YOS added: “The young people worked really hard to remove the graffiti which was actually carried out by others. Hopefully the improvements will encourage the whole community to respect the station environment more."

There were more than 5,000 recorded incidents of railway crime involving young people in Britain in 2008. Leeds remains a Yorkshire hotspot for crime but reported trespass and vandalism crimes are down around 39% on 2007.

Warrick Dent, area general manager for Network Rail, said: "The importance of the work that Network Rail is doing in helping to develop reparation packages cannot be underestimated.

"Every year, dozens of young people are killed or injured misusing the railway and Leeds remains a hot spot for railway crime. Schemes such as this give the community a cleaner station area and we have the opportunity to help young people understand the potentially fatal consequences of their actions."

Steve Butcher, area director north for Northern Rail, said: “Initiatives such as this have proven to discourage crime and anti-social behaviour on the rail network and give the youngsters some sense of the impact their activities have on the community. They have been completely committed to improving the station environment for our customers and the initiative has had a positive impact in helping them to accept responsibility for their behaviour.”