Visit these historic houses in Northern Ireland!

Ardress House

House tours of this elegant 17th century farmhouse include the impressive drawing-room, fine furniture and paintings. The farmyard, complete with traditional farm implements, is very popular with children. A new programme of family events is arranged each year.

The Argory

This handsome 1820 house has remained unchanged since 1900. It demonstrates the decorative taste of the family who lived here at that time, and also includes a barrel organ that plays traditional Irish tunes once a month during house tours. There are horse carriages, a harness room, and a laundry in the imposing stable yard. As the house has no electric light, visitors wishing to make a close study of the interior and paintings should avoid dull days early and late in the season.

Castle Coole

Castle Coole is one of the finest late 18th-century houses in Ireland. The guided tour shows the rich interior decoration, furnishings and furniture of the time, the state bedroom prepared for the visit of King George IV in 1821, and the elegant hall, where evening concerts of classical music are often held.

Castle Ward

This mid - 18th century mansion is an architectural oddity of its time, the inside and outside having been built in two distinct architectural styles. In the surrounding estate there are many holiday cottages available for private lets as well as a caravan site.

Hezlett House

One of the few buildings in Northern Ireland surviving from before the 18th century, this 17th century thatched house is simply furnished in late 19th century style. There is a small museum of farm implements. There are picnic tables outside the house, and for younger visitors a landscaped play area is provided.

Springhill

An atmospheric 17th century home, in a most attractive setting. The house tour takes in the exceptional library, family furniture from the 19th century, the nursery, and the unusual and colourful exhibition of costumes, which has some fine 17th century Irish pieces.

ANGLIAN WATER

This leaflet sets out our service pledges, with details on special care and new facilities for customers. We have other leaflets giving you further information on some subjects. Let us know which ones you would like by completing and posting the reply-paid section at the back of this leaflet.

We are committed to giving you the best customer service.

This means:

Being easy to contact

We have a freephone number for billing matters and a local charge 24-hour number for any service queries.

Keeping appointments

For written appointments, we will specify morning or afternoon to suit you (but cannot guarantee a precise time). If we have to change the arrangement, we will give you 24 hours' notice.

Answering your letters promptly

Within 10 working days for a complaint about water or sewerage services and within 20 working days if you have a billing query. If we can, we'll get back to you sooner.

No-quibble compensation if we get it wrong

We will pay £10 compensation if we fail to meet any of our guaranteed standards.

We care for every customer but we recognise that there are some who need that bit of extra help.

For our elderly or disabled customers we have a range of additional services, including your bill in Braille, help with reading your meter, or special care if for any reason you lose your water supply.

If English is not your first language and you need help understanding your bill, Language Line is a confidential telephone service which gives you information in your own language, at no extra cost.

Ring our freephone number (0800-919155) and ask for Language Line. Please tell us which language you need.

What is Work Wise?

WorkWise is a three-year programme which we are about to introduce throughout the company, to give staff different working choices, while at the same time allowing us to reduce expenditure.

WorkWise will become our usual way of working, helping us to make better use of our time, space and technology.

Time

WorkWise provides a range of alternatives. Opportunities for home working, for example, help employees to improve their work/life balance and reduce their travel time and costs.

Space

By making sure all our desks are fully used, through flexi-desking (shared desks), and designing workspaces to support different workstyles, we can rationalise the office accommodation we require and reduce its cost by 20%.

Technology

We will develop our existing technology and implement solutions to enable staff to work flexibly at any of our offices around the country.

WorkWise - what it means for you

You and your team will have a space where you generally work, where visitors can find you, where your post comes to and is collected from and where your possessions are located.

Your team's workspace will reflect realistic desk occupancy levels and how flexibly your team can work. WorkWise is looking to achieve an average team space of seven desks for every ten employees.

Understandably some teams will require more, but we know others can work effectively with fewer.

Once your team has been 'WorkWised', you might not have a specific desk allocated to you, and so you will work flexibly by using any available desk. This could be in your team workspace or in another team space. It really will be that flexible. People who no longer have a specific desk will be provided with a portable container to keep their belongings in.

Training

There will be a number of WorkWise training sessions in May

Venues                        Dates

Carter House               9 May 9.30am-12.30pm

MacDougall House      10 May 1.30pm-4.30pm

If you would like to attend one of these courses, prior booking is essential. Please use the eForm which can be accessed below, complete it and email it to the helpdesk. You will require approval from your manager, and a budget code, which can be obtained by going to the Finance Office.

Once the helpdesk has all the relevant information, you will receive confirmation by email. Please print that out and take it with you to the training session.

Ottawa City Council

Employee Code of Conduct

Conflict of interest: definition

A conflict of interest occurs when, while carrying out his/her duties, an employee of the City is required to deal with a matter in which he/she has a direct or indirect interest.

A direct interest can occur when an employee may gain, or appear to gain, some financial or personal benefit, or avoid financial or personal loss.

An indirect interest may arise when the potential benefit or loss would be experienced by another person or organisation having a relationship with the employee. This could be a friend or family member, or a business in which the employee has acquired shares.

These benefits, losses, interests and relationships are generally - but not necessarily - financial in nature. A conflict of interest arises when an employee's activities could benefit a personal interest to the disadvantage of the City's interests. Any behaviour which is, or could be seen as, a conflict of interest is prohibited, and the employee will face disciplinary proceedings.

Examples of conflicts of interest

Examples of potential conflicts of interest include the following:

• Buying property or goods from the City

An employee may only submit an offer to purchase City property or goods when these are being sold at public auction. However, employees are not permitted to take part in the public auction of vehicles sold by the City.

• Choice of suppliers

The choice of suppliers of goods and services to the City must be based on competitive considerations of quality, price, service and benefit to the City. Contracts will be awarded in a fair and legal manner. The City's policies and established procedure for selecting suppliers must be followed. It is forbidden for an employee to use his/her knowledge to influence this process for direct or indirect personal gain.

Breach of the Code of Conduct

Any employee who believes he/she or another employee is not acting in accordance with this Code of Conduct must report the matter. The procedure for disclosing a breach (or potential breach) is described in the relevant section of the Code.

Post-employment conflict of interest

After ceasing to be employed by the City, employees are not permitted to act in such a way as to benefit improperly from their previous employment.

What is Work Wise?

WorkWise is a three-year programme which we are about to introduce throughout the company, to give staff different working choices, while at the same time allowing us to reduce expenditure.

WorkWise will become our usual way of working, helping us to make better use of our time, space and technology.

Time

WorkWise provides a range of alternatives. Opportunities for home working, for example, help employees to improve their work/life balance and reduce their travel time and costs.

Space

By making sure all our desks are fully used, through flexi-desking (shared desks), and designing workspaces to support different workstyles, we can rationalise the office accommodation we require and reduce its cost by 20%.

Technology

We will develop our existing technology and implement solutions to enable staff to work flexibly at any of our offices around the country.

WorkWise - what it means for you

You and your team will have a space where you generally work, where visitors can find you, where your post comes to and is collected from and where your possessions are located.

Your team's workspace will reflect realistic desk occupancy levels and how flexibly your team can work. WorkWise is looking to achieve an average team space of seven desks for every ten employees.

Understandably some teams will require more, but we know others can work effectively with fewer.

Once your team has been 'WorkWised', you might not have a specific desk allocated to you, and so you will work flexibly by using any available desk. This could be in your team workspace or in another team space. It really will be that flexible. People who no longer have a specific desk will be provided with a portable container to keep their belongings in.

Training

There will be a number of WorkWise training sessions in May

Venues                        Dates

Carter House               9 May 9.30am-12.30pm

MacDougall House      10 May 1.30pm-4.30pm

If you would like to attend one of these courses, prior booking is essential. Please use the eForm which can be accessed below, complete it and email it to the helpdesk. You will require approval from your manager, and a budget code, which can be obtained by going to the Finance Office.

Once the helpdesk has all the relevant information, you will receive confirmation by email. Please print that out and take it with you to the training session.