Convicted criminals have worked alongside police officers and council staff to clean up a Leytonstone park.

Men and women handed community service hours were given the task of cleaning Langthorne Park.

Gang ‘tags’ were removed from benches and bushes where weapons and drugs can be hidden were cut back.

Areas of the park were deep cleansed and decking was restored.

The Community Payback Scheme operates in the borough to encourage police and offenders to work together and ‘see each other in a different light’.

One offender said: “That council bloke I worked with gave me some great tips on how to preserve my wooden garden furniture and the police officer that I worked with made me stop and think about how I always judged all police the same.

"I was wrong.” Acting Police Sergeant Mike Halpin said that the work was ‘fantastic’.

To nominate an area that might benefit from work being carried out by the Community Payback scheme email nominations@london.cp.gsi.gov.uk.