Danger! Criminals not at work on path

Convicts’ riverside clear-up halted by safety fears

SOCIAL workers have stopped criminals on community service from tidying an overgrown public footpath – in case they fall into a nearby river.

Clackmannanshire Council officials stepped in to prevent convicts helping local volunteers strim the walkway after raising objections on health and safety grounds.

Dog walkers and fishermen regularly use the track without incident and it is mostly set back several yards from the River Devon, near Tillicoultry.

But the council claims a risk assessment has highlighted fears that offenders could topple into the water if the banks give way.

The episode is the latest in a catalogue of soft-touch revelations that belies the claim that the SNP’s community payback orders (CPOs) are a tough alternative to jail. Earlier this year, criminals posted footage on social media of themselves on a putting green while on a CPO placement.

Scottish Tory shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: ‘This is an absolutely ludicrous situation.

‘People will be shocked to hear that a walkway next to a river is deemed too dangerous for community payback teams, yet local residents are expected to help keep it tidy.

‘It does nothing to banish the increasing concern that CPOs are becoming less of a punishment and are instead an easy way out.’

During the summer, 14 miles of riverside tracks in Clackmannanshire are kept clear by volunteers from the Devon Angling Association.

Last month, treasurer Alan Armstrong appealed to the council for help in smartening up a half-mile footpath running from Marchglen to the Sterling Mills outlet village in Tillicoultry.

He said: ‘I contacted Clackmannanshire and received a positive response to a request for community service people to help.

‘But two weeks later I was told the supervisor did not want to risk his people on or near crumbly riverbanks. Our work parties consist of seven people with an average age of 72 and nobody has fallen into the river and, in fact, most of this path is several yards from the water. There’s no danger at all.

‘We spend thousands of pounds on strimmers and chainsaws and, in the ten years I have been doing this, we have never received any help or thanks from the council.

‘I don’t understand this decision because the council seems to have no problem with people on community service picking up litter in places like car parks.’

A Clackmannanshire Council spokesman said: ‘In all cases, consideration has to be given to health and safety criteria with relevant assessments undertaken.

‘Unpaid work teams have previously undertaken clearance work on the public path network from Marchglen towards Tillicoultry without difficulty.

‘However, the degree of erosion and deterioration of the riverbank was such that the specific work requested by the Devon Angling Association could not be accommodated by the scheme on this occasion due to safety issues.’

‘No danger at all’

FOR proof of the extent to which the SNP’s soft-touch rot has permeated the entire justice system, look no further than our story today about criminals clearing a footpath under community payback orders.

Work was halted lest someone fall in the adjoining river, incredible given that CPOs are an alternative to jail.

Sentences are supposed to be severe enough to be a deterrent. Instead under the SNP they have become a laughing stock.

THE attempt to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair for taking Britain into the Iraq War under false pretences failed yesterday, but that certainly doesn’t make him innocent.

In the court of public opinion – and to the families of 179 British soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians who died in that catastrophic campaign – he has blood on his hands.