Letter: Happy conclusion to community service

Sir: When reading about the young delinquent who was taken to a holiday camp as part of a rehabilitation scheme, where he set about stealing anything that came to hand ('Holiday therapy for burglary boy 'not a soft option' ', 13 August), I was reminded of a rehabilitation that took place owing to work that the Gardens for the Disabled Trust was carrying out.

The aim of the trust was to build gardens with raised horticultural beds so that disabled people could have the pleasure of working them, and we were engaged in building a whole garden (paved, with about six raised beds) for a Cheshire home.

In order to do this without having to use too much of our capital, we were advised to get in touch with the probation service, with their community work schemes. This we did, and they were most friendly and helpful, sending six or eight young men on community service to do the building.

Not only did these chaps work extremely well, so that we completed a very handsome garden, but after it was finished the young men also came to several 'dos' at the home. I subsequently heard that two or three had volunteered to help at the home, which they carried on doing after their sentences were completed.

These young and healthy men had never imagined that there were people who had a lot more to put up with than they had.

Yours faithfully,

MARGARET KINSEY

Charing, Kent