Speaker key
SH Samuel Hepworth
IV Interviewer
SH My name is Samuel Hepworth. I'm from the traffic and transport group. It’s in the regeneration department.
IV Can you tell us about the regeneration of Southwark and how it will change the borough?
SH Well, I would say most of Southwark regeneration schemes are making the borough more attractive and like a friendlier place to come and like work and live. For example, we’ve got probably the largest regeneration scheme going on in the UK at Elephant and Castle, and that’s basically trying to make it like people friendly, pedestrian friendly, and cycle friendly, rather than just car orientated like vehicle orientated. We are trying to make the borough like basically a better place to work and live. We are trying to minimise the need of people to use again their private vehicles, and we are trying to encourage people to use sustainable modes of transport. So, busses, trying to walk, cycling, and it basically promotes a healthier way of living as well.
IV In what ways will the regeneration of Southwark make the borough a better place to work?
SH I think it would make it a better place to work because it’s being redesigned with pedestrians in mind, and cyclists as well, so as I said, being at the top of the hierarchy rather than at the bottom. So we are trying to make people not want to use their private vehicle or any really motorised vehicles unless it’s necessary. So we are trying to make regeneration in Southwark living and working in like a modern environment, and designed to provide sustainable commuter, a sustainable community in terms of transport, energy and the environment.
IV Why do you think people should join Southwark?
SH It’s an interesting place to work. There’s a lot of regeneration going on as, you know, like we’ve got the largest regeneration scene going on at the Elephant and Castle. We’ve got a lot going on at London Bridge. We’ve got a borough in Bankside. There’s a lot of, like I say, regeneration going on. So, as I was saying, it’s quite an interesting place to work.
IV What is Southwark’s position on flexible working and family policies?
SH We’ve got this thing called the modern ways of working now, so we are able to work remotely from home, or a lot of people, like colleagues have BlackBerry’s so when they are out and about they are able to still be in contact with colleagues and staff. We also have like something called flexi hours, so if we work over our time, like we are supposed to work 36 hours, so if you work over that then you are able to gain those hours back the next week. So, if you do seven hours over, you can have a day off the next day, next week. I mean, so I mean compared to some of my friends who work, we are pretty lucky.
IV What are the training and development opportunities like within your department/service area?
SH There’s other people within my group who are virtually doing a Masters degree, and Southwark have actually helped, encourage them do that and pay for it. So, I mean all in all they are pretty good in helping you grow.
[tape ends]
Back to profiles