Staff working for Lambeth Council are to be given paid time off to help out with community projects and volunteer at local Lambeth charities under a new scheme launched this week.

Nearly 3,000 council employees are being encouraged to spend up to three days a year away from their offices, rolling up their sleeves to help out with local projects, charities and community groups.

Under the new Lambeth Volunteering Scheme, staff could help out at local youth clubs or sports teams, join a community group for a clean up or tree planting campaign, help out at a pensioners’ lunch club, mentor a young person, or help with literacy programmes in a local primary school.

Any local group or voluntary organisation will be entitled to bid for help through the new council volunteering scheme. Every member of staff will be entitled to up to three days a year to volunteer in the community.

They will be expected to make sure this does not affect their main jobs so there is no negative effect on frontline services. Staff who take part will get a better idea of the issues facing Lambeth residents in their daily lives – which will help improve the services they run. Volunteering days will be approved in advance by managers, but if every one of almost 3,000 staff takes part that will mean 9,000 days of volunteering will be available to local groups, creating a huge new resource for community-led action.

The volunteering scheme is part of Lambeth’s cooperative council initiative which aims to hand more power over council services to local people.

Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council, said: “Community groups do fantastic work right across Lambeth, but they often tell me they could do even more if they had more volunteers.

“At the same time, people sometimes tell me the council can feel remote from the local community. I think it’s a great idea to get the council’s employees out of the town hall and into the community so they can hear directly from residents what problems they are facing and then give their time to help fix them. This will be good for our community and good for our employees, and it’s a real example of the cooperative council in action.”

Kieran Casey, WERA’s Communications Officer commented “This is a fantastic resource for local community groups to be able to see work done. In a time of so many government cuts, it is very refreshing to see Lambeth council offering such a great opportunity to the community of Lambeth and the council’s staff.”

Activites for parents and babies, see flyer below:

Thames Water have announced the need to impose water-use restrictions from April 5^th to combat the effects of an increasingly severe drought after two abnormally dry winters in a row.

The decision comes after one of the driest two-year periods in southern and eastern England since records began. Since March 2010 the region has had 35cm less rain than normal.

With groundwater levels across parts of the Thames Water region close to the lowest levels ever recorded, many tributaries of the River Thames are running desperately low. Thames Water has been running a publicity campaign since the middle of last year urging its customers to continue to voluntarily use less water, offering households free devices such as water-saving showerheads, tap-inserts and four-minute shower timers.

You can order these free devices here

The temporary use ban states out that hosepipes cannot be used for gardening, recreational uses (such as filling swimming or paddling pools) or cleaning purposes except where specific exemptions apply.

Under the terms of the ban, customers can still water their gardens and clean their cars provided they use either a watering can or a bucket, not a hose. Some of the restrictions are clearly specified as applying to domestic uses of water.

Advertisements have been placed across London, such as the one above, and the one below.

More information can be found here
Temporary Use Bans (TUBs) are imposed by a water supplier under Section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991. This legislation was amended recently to increase the scope of restrictions that can be controlled by water companies.

Last week the estate welcomed eight new estate maps. The new signage was commissioned by Lambeth Living following the organisation being responsible for housing in Lambeth since 2008.

The old estate signage did not reflect the many developments which have taken place across the estate, such as the 3 new properties on Anfield Close, The Weir Link centre as well as the Eamonn Fotrell Centre. The new signage has been designed to be bright, and easy to read, with each block being given a colour code rather than a number as the old signs were.

The signage is bigger which allows it to also be seen from the road, and all entrances to the estate now have signage to enable visitors to find their destination more easily.