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Volunteering
5 October 2009
Author:Bex Bailey
Councils are going to suffer cash crises in next three or four years. A shortage of funds and the credit crunch means councils like Rushcliffe Borough Council may not be able to afford all the services they currently provide - services like cleaning litter up off the streets, maintaining parks and recycling.
The council could increase their income by getting money from other places - charging more for car parking or charging to visit the country park, for example - but is this something you want to see happen?
An alternative could be volunteering to help clean up litter or maintain parks, or even to sort your recycling bin before it gets collected to save a job at the other end.
I have consistently argued against forced voluntary service, believing that voluntary means voluntary and people (besides those doing community service as punishment for a crime) should help because they want to and not against their will. However, it would take a lot of people to step up and offer their time for the good of their community for such a scheme to work thoroughly and efficiently, in an age when so many of us have so much to do, and so little free time.
Would you be willing to take on voluntary work, or does the answer lie in an increase in council tax or a cutting of public services?
Perhaps creating a better ethos in society, where people don't think twice about picking up litter they see on the street and putting it in a bin (or don't drop litter in the first place), would work better than having a formal volunteering scheme in place to do set jobs.
Let us know your views and ideas!
Responses to this Blog post
George Swain, 15, Cotgrave says:
07.10.2009
Don't Punish the Public
Most people's thought when they get asked to do voluntary work after a long day at the office or at school is ‘maybe another time', knowing that they have no intention to do it whatsoever. As horrible and selfish as it sounds, it's true and I'm ashamed to admit that I do the same.
Anyway, I agree with you that voluntary work should remain voluntary and if someone is forced to do so, and receiving no money, then this could amount to exploitation.
I also think that resorting to laying off street cleaners, recycling workers, workers that affect the public on a large scale is a ridiculous idea and all the campaigns that the council has been doing over the past few years has been a complete waste of time and money which is what the council is trying not to do in the first place.
Where the money needs to be saved is across all the council's departments - cutting down on office supplies, electricity usage, freebies and niche campaigns that nobody cares. If that doesn't generate enough cash and jobs do need to be cut, then cut jobs which that are not frontline services which the public need.
And finally, I think it would be incredibly unfair to ask the public for more money, especially as a lot of them are unemployed, when it was the Government and the financiers that put us and the council in this mess in the first place. Don't punish the public for something they didn't do by raising taxes or making them do "voluntary" work. If the council needs to save money, save it, just don't affect us, the public.