OVERGROWN gardens and piles of rubbish were all in a day's work for housing boss Phil Richards who went back to the basics to find out exactly what goes on in Blackburn's neighbourhoods.

Phil, who is chief executive of Twin Valley Homes, swapped the comfort of his office for a day out with the company's neighbourhood workers as part of the national Learning at Work Day.

The initiative was one of a number of activities throughout Blackburn yesterday.

It involved green-fingered Phil spending most of the afternoon clearing a garden in Beaumaris Avenue, off Green Lane, ready for new tenants moving in next week.

Phil, who is also a qualified Premiership football referee, said: "The idea of the day was for me to work with the neighbourhood workers' team as part of a job swap, and try to learn as much from them as possible.

"We started off in the morning with a team meeting before walking up to the Livesey estate to check empty properties and the streets to see if any rubbish needed clearing.

"One task involved visiting the home of a tenant to see if he had completed decorating his home so that we could then pay him for the work.

"We ask our tenants to do the work, giving them half of the money for the costs up front, and pay the remainder when the work has been done to a satisfactory standard.

"The biggest task of the day was clearing the garden at Beaumaris Avenue, which had become very overgrown, ready for the new tenants.

"And the neighbourhood workers will do this every time new people are moving into a property.

"The lads have put up a brand new fence and we have taken bagfuls of stuff backwards and forwards to the skip. It was very hard work, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

"And I even had to go back into the office afterward to check on a few things before home time."

Part of the job swap scheme will see neighbourhood worker Andy Fowlds shadow Phil at the Twin Valley Homes offices to give him an insight into life at the top.

And Phil thinks his day out with the gang will be of huge benefit to the future running of the company.

He said: "This was the first time I had spent a whole day with the neighbourhood workers, but it has been very worthwhile and interesting and have jotted down different ideas and points that they made for making things better throughout the day.

"One of things suggested was that I can help out when tenants are disputing which bit of land belongs to their tenancy.

"I have all the plans in the office, which I can then make available to the neighbourhood workers to settle disputes.

"Having better electronic equipment was also put forward as a way of making things better."

He added: "The workers have recently gone through a review process, so I will be able to team all the ideas together for the future."

As well as Phil's rather different day, Chris Gibbons, director of property, took on the role of maintenance inspector and Ian Clark, assistant director of housing services, passed on his hidden talents by teaching colleagues how to juggle.

During the Learning and Work Day, staff at Twin Valley Homes were able to take part in a whole range of activities, from stress management to reflexology.

The 30 to 40 minute sessions also included aromatherapy, diversity and equality and teamwork skills.