CONSERVATION volunteers tackling a major clear-up operation at a famous beauty spot are receiving help from an unlikely source - young offenders.

Youngsters aged up to 17 are turning their hands to some useful work under a local heritage initiative being undertaken in the Nidd Gorge, in North Yorkshire, where a series of woods and footpaths link Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Bilton Conservation Group and Knox Valley Residents' Association started work in the gorge in December 2001, bridging streams and marking routes.

Since then, they have worked tirelessly with help from young soldiers from Harrogate's Army Foundation College and groups from the US communications base at Menwith Hill, and local brownies, guides and cub scouts.

Project co-ordinator Keith Wilkinson, secretary of the conservation group, has set up a partnership between volunteers and youngsters who have been ordered by the courts to do reparation work which will speed up the project.

Mr Wilkinson said: "There is a lot which really needs to be done urgently.

"Volunteers have worked incredibly hard but they can't do it all, hence the deal struck with the local youth offending team for youngsters to help in the Gorge as part of their community payback work."