During the course of this past week I’ve managed to get out and about and it has been great to catch up with people face-to-face.
I was delighted to attend the LGTAG Presidential Conference in London, led by the incoming President Jon Munslow. The conference badged as ‘Greening the Black’ tackled the practical issues of decarbonising our highways and public infrastructure with delegates hearing from keynote speaker and Transport Minister Trudy Harrison who spoke about the importance of local councils in delivering Net Zero, active travel and the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It was a great event and I wish Jon every success in his time as President.
The following day I was invited to witness ‘innovation in action’ by one of our associate members, WJ. They demonstrated a fresh approach to applying road markings with a newly designed vehicle and an innovative applicator that has been developed in conjunction with a Norwegian company. It was very well attended by senior figures from the highways sector both here in the UK and Norway who all witnessed why this new process for applying road markings is such a significant step forward for our industry.
The entire process was controlled from the cab by the driver eliminating the need to have operatives on the road resulting in quite stark safety benefits. In addition the process is five times quicker than conventional methods and it doesn’t only lay new markings, it is able to scan existing road markings and respray them. That evening we were invited to dinner at the Norwegian Ambassador’s Residence where I was pleased to speak about the importance of innovation and what we need to do as an industry to speed it up. My thanks go to WJ for the invitation but also to Scott Wardrop Chief Executive at EUROVIA UK & VINCI Construction UK, and James Haluch, Managing Director at GB Surfacing Solutions for Breedon Group, as I put both of them on the spot during my speech by asking them about their views on why innovation is so important to us all and both shared intriguing insights.
I’ve made my views clear in the past and whilst I believe innovation is too slow in our sector I was really encouraged to see WJ making such a substantial investment that will impact on diversity, costs and safety – well done WJ.
Don’t forget to register for the LCRIG Innovation Festival by visiting: https://innovationfestival.lcrig.org.uk