Youth offenders help build car crash memorial

A new memorial garden has opened in Birmingham as a place to support families of people killed and injured in road collisions.

Community interest company, Road to Change, created the space in Pype Hayes Park, in partnership with Birmingham Children's Trust, with young people involved in driving-related offences helping to build it.

It is hoped the garden will be a calm space for bereaved locals, and a place where young people can "learn a little bit about the consequences their actions could have."

Earl Facey from the Youth Justice Service worked on the project and said he has seen many young offenders "stop to think" about their actions, while working on the garden.

"I think it gives them a period of time to reflect. We will be visiting the site two or three times a week.

"While being here we will have conversations with regards to their behaviour, future ambitions, [and] any support they need for the future. So it will be giving them a lot of opportunity to make a difference and better choices," Facey added.

The Youth Justice Service were approached five years ago about the idea of collaborating, as a way to do "meaningful reparation work."

The garden features a wall of victims names and mosaics, which young people have made.

Sarah Downer from the service said: "It was particularly poignant when our young person realised that these were all the people that had been lost to car crime."

"It's quite serene here in the park, and that offers our young people a time out and a space to reflect," Downer added.

Road to Change provides peer support and remembrance to families of road collisions victims.

Lucy Harrison, whose brother Peter was killed by a speeding driver on Hagley Road West in 2014, said: "It's quite emotional, obviously none of us would wish to be here, I would much rather my brother still be alive and this wasn't my life.

"However, what has been achieved is remarkable and it's so powerful to bring [together] families, professionals, the youth justice service and law firms with that common purpose and that sense that we need to make a change.

"It's been a lot of hard work, but it's a special place that we can come to remember our loved ones," she said.

One person who will be using the garden is Diane Cash, who said: "I lost my partner Baz, seven-and-a-half years ago, when his motorbike ended up under a lorry.

"It's an absolutely beautiful idyllic spot, you've got little birds behind me, going into the trees. It's so peaceful and it will reflect the good memories of when I was with Baz.

"All these people, they are my friends, they are my family. I can cry and I can laugh. Nobody is going to say anything, nobody is going to judge," Cash added.

The park is located in Pype Hayes Park in Erdington and will be maintained by Road to Change and Birmingham Children's Trust.

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