Prisoners helping clean-up Swale
Published
Thursday 4 December, 2025
Updated
Thursday 4 December, 2025
Prisoners helped clean up a canal and clear fly-tipping across Swale, thanks to our and HMP Standford Hill’s Active Citizenship Together (ACT) scheme.
Volunteer offenders from the prison, on the Isle of Sheppey, go out and clean the borough’s alleyways, cemeteries, canals, beaches and allotments each Tuesday.
They also help clear fly tipping and repair benches, goal posts and other street furniture, helping with their rehabilitation and upskilling and giving them the opportunity to contribute positively to Swale’s communities.
The prisoner volunteer scheme has proven to be a success over its 20 years of running, helping keep Swale tidy.
The initiative is funded with money brought in through fixed penalty notices for waste related crimes, meaning people who fly-tip can help pay for the clean-up of their mess.
So far this year the prisoners have:
- cleared the Sheerness Canal bank
- tidied up the cemeteries in Faversham and Sittingbourne
- litter picked on Sheppey’s beaches
- cleared alleyways of fly tipping across the borough
- repaired street furniture, like benches
- repaired and de-weeded allotments
- cleaned Swale’s car parks
Cllr Dolley Wooster, chair of Swale Borough Council’s Environmental Services and Climate Change Committee, said:
“We are proud to be partnering up with our local prisons to provide a benefit for our communities while giving inmates the opportunity to upskill themselves, while working towards their rehabilitation.
“We are able to get the volunteers from HMP Standford Hill out to places that need some extra attention like our canals and alleyways, and help with our general cleaning and maintenance schedule.
“The initiative is funded with money collected through our enforcement of waste related crimes, which allows us to make the people selfishly dumping their rubbish pay towards keeping swale clean.
“We also work with HMP Swaleside to repair unwanted bikes, upskilling the prisoners, saving bikes from the tip, and providing people with cheap, environmentally friendly active travel.
“These projects help us work towards our goals of making Swale a cleaner and greener place while helping offenders with their rehabilitation journeys.”
