Blayney councillors this month voted to endorse an application to become an accredited community agency partner as part of the community service order scheme.

It will involve allowing suitable assessed offenders who are required to undertake a maximum of 500 hours of unpaid work to carry out a variety of manual labour tasks throughout the shire.

Blayney general manager Rebecca Ryan told councillors there had been varied feedback from neighbouring and regional councils, both positive and negative, about the program. 

“Whilst council staff feel positive, there are some reservations and the preference initially would be to have the small self-contained teams arrive with their own supervisor to undertake some useful projects that have been identified in parks and gardens, cemeteries and public halls,” Ms Ryan said.

“The officers from Orange Community Corrections have reassured senior staff that whilst there may have been some not so pleasant experiences in the past, there are better procedures and systems in place now to deal with these sorts of issues as they arise.”

Ms Ryan said care must be taken to be not replacing the role of a paid employee or contractor by the utilisation of this unpaid labour.