SATURDAY mornings for me no longer mean a good lie in or a trip to the shops, instead I am usually found up to my knees in mud down by the river helping a group of volunteers.

One of the great achievements along the Thames in recent years has been the establishment of volunteer groups and this was recognised last week at the National Waterways Renaissance Awards, held at Madame Tussauds.

Dubbed the Waterway Oscars', the evening recognised the very best in UK waterway conservation and regeneration. South west London was well represented both by the Thames Landscape Strategy and by the London Wetland Centre at Barnes. Out of the six categories, the Thames Landscape Strategy was nominated for the Partnership' award, the toughest of the six areas of expertise.

The competition was stiff and in the end we were awarded a special commendation (effectively second place) behind the Kennet and Avon Canal Partnership Trust. Although we didn't take first place, the award was still a great achievement particularly as the winners had completed their project last year, enabled through a £28m Heritage Lottery Fund grant awarded in 1996.

The judges had been impressed in the way that the Thames Landscape Strategy had bought together 14 diverse riverside managers into a single partnership and was now beginning to implement many of the Strategy's policies on the ground. In particular, the judges were highly impressed in the way that the London's Arcadia project of the Thames Landscape Strategy was not just engaging the local community in volunteer work along the river but doing so working in a planned way with the council, Service Team and other statutory managers.

It is interesting that the idea of volunteering and volunteer groups is well established in the UK yet it is a relatively new concept in riverside environment management.

What London's Arcadia' is achieving which sets it apart from other environmental volunteer programmes is that the volunteer work is planned as a fully integrated part of the day-to-day management programme carried out by the council. In this way, the limited resources of the council are maximised, whilst the work carried out by volunteers has a greater long-term impact.

This said, volunteers do not substitute the work of the council but carry out the variety of tasks beyond the scope of the modern river manager. The best thing about it is that almost anybody can take part. It is also satisfying that those people who have been involved to date really seem to enjoy it.

Opportunities to volunteer range from outdoor manual work such as litter picking or scrub clearance to the more detailed production of architectural drawings for riverside schemes.

Much of the practical work is organised for us by the UK's national conservation body, BTCV, who first introduced conservation volunteering to the UK.

Arcadia now has a dedicated member of staff on the BTCV team for Richmond borough who co-ordinates some of our projects. Without the volunteer programme, this important work would simply not happen and significantly as London's Arcadia is a Heritage Lottery funded scheme, every hour of work carried out by a volunteer counts as matched funding and, with over £1m still to raise that really counts.

An increasing amount of volunteer work, is being initiated by local people and groups, who are working under the umbrella of London's Arcadia'. Notable amongst these are the Ham and Petersham Association, the Asgill House Trust and the Environment Trust for Richmond upon Thames.

If you would like to get involved why not come and join one of the many voluntary groups. All you need do is contact us. For more information contact Paul Clay on 020 8831 6150 or Ken MacKenzie on 020 8891 7309 who will be able to point you towards the appropriate group.

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volunteer base covers a wide range of local people of all ages. One of most satisfying elements of working with volunteers is this diverse base of people retired people, parents with their children and young professionals who all have a common interest - they want to put something back into the local environment.

It is this, more than anything that motivates people to come out and help. The desire to contribute to the future of their splendid riverside environment is for many the reason they moved to the area in the first place. Volunteering does not always mean early starts, wellies and a broom in hand however! Through Arcadia, professionals in the fields of design, event management or hard landscaping can get involved too and as with the practical work, every hour spent volunteering counts as match funding for lottery money.

In addition to the Arcadia project, a host of other environmental and heritage based organisations in the area rely on volunteers. At Ham House, a small army of tour guides and gardeners keep the National Trust property running smoothly, whilst down on the towpath the River Thames Society has a warden scheme to monitor litter (now integrated into the on-going council management regime) and in Richmond Park, stag beetle monitors carry out surveys for the local bio-diversity action group. A full audit of the towpath between Kew Bridge and Mortlake was recently carried out by the Environment Trust and the Thames Strategy (Kew to Chelsea).

It is hoped that Arcadia will expand the scope of our volunteer work with time and to a wider range of locations. For example, the possibility to teach volunteers re-pointing skills on the crumbling riverside walls, horticultural techniques in local parks or carpentry skills mending broken seats is currently being explored. Volunteering is making a real difference and it is fun and extremely satisfying stuff. It can be as much or as little as you accommodate, outside or inside, hard labour or envelope stuffing.

The special commendation awarded to the Thames Landscape Strategy last week at the Waterways Awards was in recognition of all these dedicated volunteers who regularly give up their time. Although there is still such a long way to go, a real renaissance in our riverside and open spaces is taking place at the moment and much of it is being achieved on the ground by local people facilitated through schemes such as London's Arcadia and the Thames Landscape Strategy. If you would like to get involved why not come and join one of the many voluntary groups. All you need do is contact us. For more information contact Paul Clay on 020 8831 6150 or Ken MacKenzie on 020 8891 7309 who will be able to point you towards the appropriate group.