Change of scene could change lives

"To be honest, I wasn't that keen, but it's been a lot better than I thought." Billy, from the Holme Valley, is sawing up wood for bird boxes in the Marsden Moor estate offices of the National Trust.

He's one of a small band of young offenders flag-laying on the old Pennine Way, planting cotton grass and surveying the bracken. "'There's been a lot of walking," adds Billy.

"But it's quite nice up here. I can imagine coming here to calm down."

Billy and the group aged 14-18 are classed as "low risk" and are often first-time offenders. They are up here as part of an innovative project known as restorative justice. It aims to bring young offenders to a realisation of the harm their crimes have caused and to take responsibility for their actions.

They are referred to the scheme by the courts and must first take part in a community panel.

This includes specially-trained members of the community and facilitators from the Kirklees Youth Offending Team (YOT). Victims of their crimes are encouraged to come along as well to tell their side of the story and explain the impact the crime has had on them.

These are often community-related – vandalism, theft, damage to property, anti-social behaviour – and so a project with an environmental slant, which involves caring for and valuing a place such as this, seems ideal.

The aim is not only to confront the youngsters with the consequences of their crimes but also to offer them an opportunity to repair the harm done to the victim and the community.

Alison Mills, the National Trust's community warden at Marsden was watching Billy and the others at work.

"This group is different," she says. "Most other groups I work with have been on the moors at least once or twice and actively want to go there. This group haven't and didn't know what to expect. It's remote, far away from buildings, very different from the kind of environment in which many of the young people spend most of their time."

Alison approached the YOT over a year ago. "I wanted to find out what restorative justice was, but I wasn't sure what working with young offenders would involve."

Julie Walsh from the YOT got in touch and the two met and began planning how they might work together.

Julie, who comes from Marsden, lives only a few miles away and was keen to work with the National Trust: "I grew up on these moors," she says. "They're part of who I am."

Together, she and Alison devised a community project focused on this moor.

Marsden Moor is a suitable location, not least because it is, and feels, so remote. "We don't want to work in too public a place," says Julie. "We don't want young people to feel labelled as young offenders. Quite apart from anything else, they might feel they have to live up to that label."

Up here there's the chance to get away from it all, familiar patterns of thought, environment and lifestyle.

"Taking the young people somewhere they've never been before gives them a bit of space," says Julie, "away from the kinds of things which have often caused the offence and might yet trap them into re-offending.

"I brought a young lad over from Batley, and as we dropped down into Slaithwaite we could see the moors on the other side.

"I pulled over and we had a long chat about what he liked doing at school and he told me that he had a particular interest in art. And then he pointed towards the view and said, 'I'm going to come back here one day and paint that'. He'd never worn wellies. I think what it showed him was that life needn't begin and end in Batley.

"Many of the young people have had a lot to put up with in their lives – drugs, alcohol, gangs, abusive backgrounds. But they're young kids and, for some, what has happened feels like a terrible mistake. We want them to know and understand what they have done. But also to give them a chance to repair it, to think about themselves and where they are going, to step outside the offending box."

Marsden Moor is proving to be a popular project and has now been expanded.

The YOT has found extra funding enabling Alison to develop more adventurous activities. "We can go much further afield and we've been able to equip the group properly, which was crucial in the cold weather."

Billy is now considering becoming a volunteer for the National Trust. Alison and Julie are delighted.

I ask him what he likes best about the moor and he recalls a morning when the group walked for what seemed like hours.

"We came to this massive pond in the middle of nowhere. I don't know why it was there, but I just wanted to jump in.

"One day, I'd like to go back there and jump in that pond."

Billy's name has been changed.