Making a clean start

Offenders can do laundry service for community groups

It’s not unusual for people taking part in the Unpaid Work Service to be cleaning up their act, but in one corner of South Lanarkshire they are doing it literally!

Run by the council, it provides more than 500 placements each year for offenders serving Community Payback Orders.

Among the work provided under the scheme is a laundry service that helps anyone, from football teams to families, experiencing difficulty in keeping on top of their washing piles.

Diane Dobbie, service manager at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “There is a general misconception that a community payback order involves just things like grasscutting or fence-painting, and of course these are worthwhile activities that benefit local communities.

“However, many people don’t realise how wide a range of work is undertaken, and the laundry service is a perfect example of that – something that is relatively unknown but which is quietly helping people and groups throughout the area.”

The work done by the service supports charities, community/ voluntary groups and individuals in a variety of ways, as well as supporting people in hardship or crisis.

And the laundry does just that, undertaking washing three days a week for groups such as boys’ clubs who need their strips washed, or the Community Links organisation who send donated school uniforms so that they will be pristine when they are passed on.

Placement co-ordinator John Mcquade runs the laundry service and revealed that they are always looking for more work.

He said: “We do a lot of football kits and school uniforms but we also help individuals, such as maybe a young family whose washing machine has broken down, or someone with several children that has taken unwell at the same time.

“We would help in emergency situations like that for a four-week period at the most, after which the person would need to reapply, and they have to bring their clothes here and collect them, but the washing itself is a free service and we provide the soap powder and the machines, so it really is a great benefit to