David Cameron's Big Society - any volunteers?
Finding a new army of volunteers is David Cameron's big political idea. He calls it the Big Society - expect to hear much more about it after the government's big cuts in public spending.
The public libraries of Nottinghamshire are already looking for volunteers. Spending cuts
introduced by Conservatives running County Hall will reduce the number of professional staff and opening hours.
That's angered library users and public sector unions. But Councillor John Cottee, the politician responsible for Nottinghamshire's 60 libraries, says there was little choice because of the deficient crisis.
He denies wanting to replace professional librarians with unpaid volunteers.
"I wouldn't want insult our professional librarians by trying to replace them.They are highly qualified people and I don't want to close libraries. But volunteers would bring different qualities that we could use in different areas and in different ways."How they would help out - other than on the counter - remains unclear.
It raises the issue of whether volunteers can plug the gaps left after the spending cuts.
At the offices of Nottingham's Community and Voluntary Service, Melanie Jeffs and her colleagues co-ordinate 1300 different groups of volunteers, doing community work free of charge. They reckon 40% of adults in the East Midlands already do some voluntary work at least once a year. The Big Society? Melanie says it's just a government re-branding exercise.
"There's a lot of fear about the impact on the voluntary sector from the government's Spending Review. There are going to be some deep cuts," she told me.
" We are also concerned that welfare reform is going to affect the wide community and that will only increase demand for our service with a lot less funding around."So where can you find an example of Big Society thinking already being practised?
Turn the clock back to 2004. Labour-run Nottingham City Council decided to shut down one of its swimming pools. It blamed rising costs. Local residents were furious. So a deal was struck.
The council agreed to sell the swimming pool to Lenton's community association for just a tenner. Two years ago, the swimming pool that the council wanted to close had been saved by volunteers running it themselves.
The pool is part of a community centre and an important element of its revenue comes through letting refurbished office space. Above all, the centre relies on voluntary effort.
"We've got a good structured voluntary programme," Sue Rider, the manager of the Lenton Centre told me.
"We've got a full-time student, who co-ordinates our volunteers in his spare time. People help out with IT duties to front desk reception. They also help out with a little bit of cleaning as well."
Financially, the Lenton Centre is breaking even and it's still attracting volunteers to help.
But Melanie Jeffs worries that finding a huge army of volunteers to run other community services will be difficult.
"We've got to understand that we've a culture of working very long hours in this country and some people are taking on second jobs to support the family. There are other barriers - like childcare - to stop people from volunteering. So it's unreasonable to expect so many more people to use their spare time to volunteer. It's not right for everyone.The spending cuts are already making some people very angry indeed. This week, windows at Nottinghamshire's County Hall were smashed. Mindless vandalism or a political statement? It could be an indication of further anger and protest to come as further spending cuts are made.
Persuading more volunteers to make-up for cuts to services and jobs may be the first and biggest test for David Cameron's Big Society.
Hello. My name is John Hess. I'm the BBC's Political Editor for the East Midlands and this blog will offer my musings on the political scene from Westminster to closer to home. 
