Council workers are being encouraged to help out in their communities with paid time off.

Allerdale council is offering staff two days of paid leave a year to do voluntary work in the community.

The new policy has just been adopted and could see workers helping at anything from supporting council-led initiatives to working with unrelated groups.

A spokesman said: "Many of our employees spend a lot of their time helping out in the community and we wanted to encourage this further as everyone benefits.

"It is part of the council’s vision to work to improve the lives of everyone who lives in, and visits, our area.

"As part of our council plan initiatives, we shall also be supporting community events, such as beach cleans or marshalling an event.

"Employees will be able to use their volunteering days for these events, or to support other community group activities like with the brownies or cadets."