Onley prisoners build bird boxes with support from Rugby businesses

The project was organised by the council's town park ranger, Stephanie Huggett, who contacted the governor of Onley to enquire whether prisoners could build the boxes if the council could source the building supplies.

After generous support from Rugby-based Batchelors Builders and MKM Rugby, the prisoners set to work on building 70 boxes - including general bird boxes and special boxes for robins, boxes for bats and bug boxes for insects.

Now Stephanie has distributed dozens of boxes to schools, community organisations and voluntary groups in the borough - including the Benn Partnership Centre, Brownsover Community School, Overslade Community Centre, Paddox Primary School and New Bilton Community Association - while boxes have also been put up in the grounds of the category C prison.

"We were delighted to get this idea off the ground with the support of Onley and Rugby-based building companies," Stephanie said.

"Everyone has a role to play in supporting biodiversity and conserving and creating wildlife habitats, so we really want to encourage our communities to connect with nature through projects such as this one."

John Waters, who runs the Onley Prison working party which built the boxes, said the prisoners were delighted when the governor approached the party with the idea.

"This has been a very good collaborative project which I hope can be continued," John added. "I have fed back to the men about how the boxes are being used, which has gone down well.

"We have a lot of skills available within the prisoner workforce which could be beneficial for all parties and doing work like this helps with their rehabilitation and work readiness for their release."