Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill today launched a new Aberdeen project which will see teams of low level offenders on community sentences being sent out to fix fallen cemetery headstones.

Under the initiative, gravestones will be repaired and fallen headstones will be returned to their original upright positions in a major clean-up operation by offenders who are being set to work in their communities to repay their debt to society.

The Community Payback project will take place at Trinity Cemetery and the work is being carried out at the request of the local community - something the Justice Secretary wants to see more of following new laws he brought in which now mean local communities can have a direct say on the type of work they want to see offenders doing.

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The project is being taken forward as part of a near £500,000 funding package announced today by the Scottish Government.

Paying tribute to the project, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "Cemeteries should be a place of quiet reflection, a place to pay your respects and to remember loved ones lost.

"Unfortunately, the scene at many cemeteries in Aberdeen, and more widely across Scotland, is one of fallen and broken headstones. That is unacceptable, it’s a bugbear of many communities up and down the country, and this project will see action being taken to rectify it.

"The council and church workers do their best, but finding the resources and labour required to carry out these repairs is often a real struggle for many.

"We want to get these low level offenders out doing some hard work, carrying out tough manual labour to repay their dues to the community they’ve harmed, whilst delivering improvements from which the community will benefit."

(GK)