Preston should establish a regular ‘community service day’ to encourage residents to volunteer a few hours of their time to help improve their neighbourhoods – and strengthen the bonds between locals.

That is the call from a city councillor who says he has been inspired by an initiative in Rwanda, a version of which he believes would benefit Preston.

Cllr Maxwell Green, deputy leader of the Conservative group at the town hall, discovered the “umuganda” scheme when studying for his PhD in international relations, which focused on efforts to rebuild Rwanda in the wake of the genocide that occured in the country in 1994.

On the last Saturday of every month, everybody who is physically capable of doing so spends three hours taking part in organised public works projects which range in scale from building new facilities to tree-planting and litter-picking. They can also use the time to help vulnerable individuals who may need assistance around their own homes.

“Even the President does it,” Cllr Green said.

That is because, in Rwanda, the initiative is mandatory – the one aspect of the idea which the Sharoe Green ward representative says could not be imported into Preston.

However, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he hopes the “community spirit” the collective effort would generate on a monthly or bi-monthly basis could make it sufficiently appealing to persuade significant numbers of people to take part.

“It would bring everyone together for a good common purpose – and people do feel good about helping out others,” he said.

Cllr Green is actively trying to get the idea off the ground after being appointed a ‘peace ambassador’ by the Institute for Economics and Peace thinktank. The organisation explores ways to engender what it describes as “positive peace”, via “the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies” – viewed through an economic prism.

While umuganda was born out of a need to rebuild communities torn apart by the bloodiest of conflicts, Cllr Green says that, in Preston, the concept could help to forge links between neighbours where they do not currently exist.

He explained: “It’s about building communities… and strengthening community bonds, something which would be especially important in a City of Sanctuary [which welcomes and supports refugees and asylum seekers]. It shows everyone is taking pride in their neighbourhood and city and aids the integration of new people into the area.

“And it also saves a lot of money just from people [volunteering].”

Cllr Green is also proposing the creation of ‘grow gardens’ in every primary school in the city, the establishment and maintenance of which would form a strand of the volunteering programme.

The green spaces would serve to teach children “responsibility” as well as providing an opportunity for them to “relax and de stress”, he said.

He is now planning to use his role as the author of the Conservative group’s amendment to the city council’s annual budget-setting process early next year to plant the seed for the projects.