The success of the community service schemes operated by the Department of Home Affairs has been praised by the charity Beach Buddies.

Community Service schemes, where offenders are required to work for a fixed number of unpaid hours in various roles, have included a large number of mostly young offenders working alongside volunteers for the beach cleaning charity for a number of years.

“This started several years ago, and it has been a very positive initiative,” said Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale.

“I’ll be honest, when the first group came along to a beach cleaning session at Blue Point four years ago, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The image I had was that we would have a bunch of cocky young lads, arriving on the beach and looking absolutely fed up at being asked to pick up other people’s rubbish.

“But, I hold my hands up - you have to understand that the vast majority of offenders on these schemes have only been convicted of fairly minor offences, and, in my experience, the ones we have dealt with turned out to be a really decent bunch of people who seemed to like what Beach Buddies was doing.

“There were one of two who looked pretty fed up when I gave them a bin bag, gloves and a litterpicker to pick up the rubbish and junk other people had left on the beaches, but they all came back with a smile.

“Just like all our new volunteers who regularly arrive every weekend, no one really knows what to expect, but I have to say that everyone serving community service that we have met appeared to go away with a very positive attitude.

“In particular, we found that a group of young offenders who were asked to help us repair the footpath at Niarbyl showed fantastic enthusiasm, and worked extremely hard during their time working with us. More to the point, they did a really great job.

“If Beach Buddies has helped in even the slightest way to help the Department of Home Affairs and - most especially - those serving community service, then I can only say we were absolutely delighted to be a part of the scheme.”

It’s estimated more than 3,500 hours of unpaid work will be completed by weekend Community Service work groups in 2016.