Matthew Lugg OBE CIHT President’s Blog No. 3 September 2018

12th Oct 2018

After such a brilliant summer, autumn has arrived and with it the start of a very busy period of Presidential commitments where I’ve attended three regional dinners plus the Locan Cup dinner, two roundtable debates and one workshop, presented at two conferences and chaired two CIHT meetings - all very exciting!

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Tuesday 11 September Midland Highway Alliance (MHA) Annual Conference Aspirations & Alliances – Facing the Challenges, Motor Cycle Museum Solihull

I was delighted to be invited to participate at this event for a number of reasons. Firstly having created the MHA back in my days as Director of Environment Transport at Leicestershire CC, it was great to see how the organisation has flourished. Secondly this was a brilliant opportunity to explain how CIHT and being a member is helping to tackle the various challenges facing our industry including:

 

  • Funding
  • Resources
  • Brexit
  • Public confidence
  • Climate change
  • Technological change

Thanks to Henry Gates, one of CIHT’s Regional Engagement officers, for fronting the stand at the event. I have received some very positive feedback with the organisers saying –“You were the most dynamic speaker of the day”

CIHT West Midlands Regional Committee Meeting, WSP offices Birmingham

I was pleased to be able to accept an invitation to attend the above meeting which was only a short distance from the MHA event in Solihull .The meeting was hosted by WSP in their offices right next to the new Grand Central Station. It was a privilege to meet the Committee, share my views and hear about all the great work they are currently doing. 

West Midland Regional Chairman Adrian Hull and Secretary Phil Santos 

 

Wednesday 12 September the future of Local Road Funding and Governance round table discussion held at Britannia Walk, London

The Parliamentary Transport Select Committee is launching an inquiry into local roads funding and governance. CIHT held a roundtable as part of shaping our response to the inquiry. Several organisations attended included LGA, CECA, and IHE. Participants addressed the ongoing struggles of our industry to ensure proper road maintenance with declining resources. There was recognition that bold steps need to be taken to ensure the industry can deliver for customers.

Thursday 13 September CIHT Board of Trustees Meeting, Britannia walk

One of the Presidential duties is to chair the Board of Trustees meeting and this was my first. The morning focused on a more informal induction and training for Trustees followed by a formal meeting in the afternoon. I had great pleasure in welcoming four new trustees from all parts of the UK with each bringing a different transport perspective to the Board.

  • Kane Lynch, CIHT Northern Ireland
  • Neil Johnstone, CIHT Scotland
  • Andy Warrington, CIHT East Midlands
  • Lynn Basford, CIHT South East

16 - 17 September CIHT Locan Cup golf tournament at St Pierre golf course, Chepstow

It was a great privilege to be able to support this long standing traditional event. Despite not personally participating I was able to enjoy walking in the beautiful Wye valley with my wife Susan and Dalmatian dog Darcy. My duties included speaking at the dinner and presenting the trophies. Congratulations to the CIHT South East Regional team who were this year’s Locan Cup winners. (Looks like they are worried I was going to drop the trophy!)

Congratulations also to Chris Pettitt who won the partners trophy. It was great to meet up again with a former colleague from my North Yorkshire days Chris Bulman OBE who is doing a great job as Chairman of the CIHT Locan Cup Golf Committee.

 

 

Wednesday 19 September CIHT Council Meeting

This was the first time I chaired the Council meeting and it was a pleasure to welcome a number of new members who were attending for the first time. Including Neil Johnstone, Kerry Evans, Susan Giahi Broadbent, Kerry, Emily Ingham and Matt Steele. The main item was a presentation from Richard Coates from the Office of Road and Rail Regulation (ORR) on the Annual Assessment of Highways England performance followed by a lively debate.

Thursday 20 September ICE Municipal Panel (Urban Engineering) Workshop on urban infrastructure, technologies and Infrastructure

ICE in collaboration with other key organisations sought to identify how technology and innovation could be used more effectively in the development and management of urban infrastructure, specifically for towns and cities. I joined several industry experts at this discussion. and had a stimulating, thought provoking discussion about our Futures initiative.

 

 

Wednesday 26 September - Pot Hole Seminar Brunel University

This was really good event with some excellent presentations from a strong line up of industry figures including:- George Lee CEO HTMA ,Alan Ferguson President IAM ,Jack Couzens Head of Roads Policy AA ,Mark Stevens Chair of ADEPT Engineering Board, Prof Alan Woodside Brunel University ,Dr Mujib Rahman Brunel University. I was asked to give the keynote speech which gave me the opportunity to promote CIHT, and share my Presidential theme as well as describe the Lugg Review.

NCE/WSP Roundtable Debate on “Circular thinking”

The premise for this debate was that the construction industry is the largest user of resources in the UK economy, and reducing resource consumption can significantly lower costs while also protecting the natural environment. WSP have a produced a report – Accelerating resource efficient circular design in buildings and infrastructure - and have come up with 10 practical recommendations for action based around 4 key areas-
• Skills
• Standards and policy
• Records and evidence
• Finance and procurement.
So as you can imagine this generated a lively debate debates of which will appear in the next edition of New Civil Engineer.

Thursday 27 September CIHT Scotland Annual Dinner and Awards, Glasgow

The first of the regional dinners kicked off in style in the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. Prior to dinner myself and CIHT Scotland Chair Ross Spears enjoyed an excellent presentation and site visit to see the Glasgow’s Queen Street station redevelopment. We saw the recent electrification of the line, both projects forming part of EGIP (the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement programme). Thanks to Network Rail and Balfour Beatty for hosting this. Susan and I really enjoyed the evening which was attended by over 300 people. I also had the pleasure of presenting the awards so congratulations to all the winners. The after dinner speaker was Isobel Rutter who talked about a very taboo subject breast cancer describing her personal experience in coping with the illness in a light hearted but thought provoking way.

Friday 28 September CIHT Yorkshire & Humber Annual Dinner and Awards Yorkshire, Leeds

After a short overnight stop in Glasgow we had to travel south to the next Regional dinner in Leeds. During my presidential year I’m hoping that all my children will be able to attend one of the dinners so it was great to have my son James and his wife Rebecca attend this dinner. They are both teachers working in South Yorkshire. CIHT Yorkshire and the Humber Chair Andy Burton’s Presidential charity is “Life for A kid” and it was good to hear about this and see the benefits it delivers.

  

 

 

 

 

 

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