Convicted criminals serving community sentences are to be put to work restoring Surrey's war memorials.

The Respect and Remember project will offer improvement works across the county to tidy up and restore pride in its many war memorials, war memorial halls and other places of remembrance.

The work will be conducted by those the courts have handed community sentences or community ‘payback’ to.  Young people will also conduct the work, as part of the Surrey Youth Restorative Justice Programme.

The project is a partnership between the Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust, Surrey County Council’s youth services and funded at the outset by Kevin Hurley, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).

Jeff Harris, deputy PCC, said: "For those offenders who wish to make amends for the harm they have done to our communities, I dearly hope this project will give them pause to reflect on the horror and hardship endured by those whose lives were cut short in the Great War and the sense that it is not too late to turn their own lives around."