Riding school saved from closure by offenders

A riding school facing closure due to government cuts has been saved by a group of offenders.

Community service

For 45 years Cardiff Riding School has taught inner-city children and adults to ride. It also runs a Riding for the Disabled group. However, in 2013 Cardiff Council announced the school would have to close in order to make savings.

The equestrian centre’s future has now been secured, thanks to Wales Community Rehabilitation Company (Wales CRC) who provided unpaid manpower as part of offenders’ community service.

‘Super job’

“Previously we had a lot of quotes for mending the fencing and faced a massive bill of £50,000 from an outside contractor, now we’ve only had to pay for the raw materials,” said Gloria Garrington, assistant manager at the stables.

“The work that has been done has made the school much more secure and kept money in our budget which we can use for the horses. It’s been a super job.”

The team of offenders has also built replacement doors for the indoor riding school, saving them a total of £42,000.

Adrian Cowley, Community Payback supervisor with Wales CRC, said the offenders have also benefitted by learning new woodworking skills.

Rehabilitation

Wales CRC was set up in 2014 when it took on much of the community-based rehabilitation work previously carried out by Wales probation.

Community Payback work saved Welsh communities around £3.5 million in 2013/14, with offenders completing 552,209 hours of unpaid work.

Projects range from cleaning and restoring war heroes’ graves to protecting waterways, providing play equipment for schools and digging pensioners’ gardens.