YOUNG offenders are repaying their debt to society by undertaking a variety of community projects.

And a £50,000 scheme to create a training and resource centre at an allotments site in Bury is benefiting from the initiative.

Several teenagers are helping clear a site at the Walnut Avenue allotments which will be transformed into a community garden.

The Walnut Avenue Allotments Association has received funding of £50,000 to create the North West's first-ever horticulture training and resource centre.

This unit will be deployed to train disabled and able-bodied people to allow them to develop green-fingered skills.

And a community garden, which will be the centrepiece of the project, is to be established at the allotments site.

Now, thanks to the reparation work of several young offenders, the site is beginning to take shape. The teenagers are under the supervision of Bury's own 25-strong Youth Offending Team (YOT) who work with young people to reduce youth crime.

The group brings together staff from the police, social services, Probation Service, education, health and elsewhere with the aim of preventing offending by children and young people.

Youngsters can be ordered to undertake reparation within the community for a stipulated amount of hours over a given period.

These people may have been given a final warning by the police following a first or second offence or be going through the courts, ordered to carry out community work or referred from other organisations.

The Walnut Avenue allotments project is one of several community-wide initiatives where youngsters are carrying out work.

PC Dave Smith, the police representative on the Youth Offending Team, said: "We set the amount of hours of reparation which is based on the severity of an offence.

"We will carry out a number of local projects and assist anybody who can let us work within the community."

At the allotments site, the teenagers have been busily clearing ground in readiness for work to start on the community garden.

Two of the teenagers are pictured loading debris and general rubbish into a skip on the site.

Bury company A1 Skip Hire has donated a skip free of charge to allow debris to be removed from the ground.

Commenting on the objectives of the scheme, PC Smith added: "These youngsters have got to put something back into the community and made aware of the effects of offending within that community."

Earlier, officials from the Walnut Avenue Allotments Association had approached Bury YOT to ask if they could become involved in the reparation scheme.