ST HELENS Council is joining forces with the police and local residents and tenants groups to set up a new service which it is hoped will help to put an end to neighbour disputes.

MEND (St Helens Mediation and Neighbour Dispute Service) is being developed by the council in conjunction with Merseyside Police and St Helens Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations. The organisation is presently looking for volunteer mediators who will receive full training and expenses. If you want to take part in this exciting new service and to use your skills to improve life in the community, please contact the mediation co-ordinator Mark Jory on 01744 614609, for an information pack and an informal chat.

MEND is an independent, cofidential, impartial and free service which will use mediation to help solve neighbour disputes, offering an alternative to legal remedies. Mediation is a new and growing field and has a national success rate of 86 per cent.

The service would enable residents in dispute to talk freely and in confidence to professionally-trained mediators who would act as go-betweens. Using communications and negotiation skills they would then work towards a settlement. Mediation has no powers but its high success rate stems from bringing people together to make agreements - an enriching process for individuals and the community.

The service is jointly funded by the council, the Safer Merseyside Partnership, Riverside Housing Association, Grosvenor Housing Association, Liverpool Housing Trust and the William Sutton Trust. Other local housing associations have shown support and are hoping to contribute funds.

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