Poor old Lloyds TSB are going through a bit of a rough time at the moment, and staff must be feeling a bit vulnerable, so that makes it all the more impressive that a crowd of Lloyds TSB staff in Crawley gave up a day this week to go along to the Broadfield Community Centre and help decorate the main hall.

Not only that, but they had the full support of their local management who, I believe, chipped in with some supplies. They are going to come back to do some clearing up of the gardens and say they will pop back every month or so to keep the grounds tidy. I hear that Homebase has been persuaded to donate some plants as well.

I can remember from my brief time as treasurer at the community centre that paying for gardeners was quite expensive. With the steady reduction in grants over the last few years the centre has had to do away with that and it really shows – the gardens have been getting tatty – so its great to see all this volunteering activity ramping up to fill the gaps, and its another reminder that the world is not all black and white but has various shades of grey: even big, bad multinational banks now have corporate social responsibility policies.

It sometimes sounds like a load of jargon, but it can make a big difference to some charities to have a team of helpers come in like that. As soon as they get the place bright and shiny we will have to persuade them to start booking rooms for meetings!