Representatives from a wide range of industry groups including the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) highlighted the reasons why fostering collaboration is key to improving local roads at the Highways UK event.
Highways UK, which is taking place at the Birmingham NEC from 2-3 November, brings together the people responsible for planning, developing, managing, maintaining, and future-proofing the nation’s roads networks.
In the Local Authority Theatre on Wednesday (2 November), Paula Claytonsmith, Director, Government and Strategy at LCRIG, formed part of a panel session entitled ‘Fostering collaboration to improve local roads’ and was joined by Mark Kemp, President, ADEPT; Matthew Eglinton, Head of Local Roads and Winter Resilience, Department for Transport; Kealie Franklin, General Secretary, ARTSM; Rupert Clubb, Programme Director, Transport for the South East; Jon Munslow, President, LGTAG.
Speaking on behalf of LCRIG, Paula Claytonsmith said: “One of the biggest blockers around collaboration is people being truthful with one another. Very rarely do we make the case to Ministers. They say they think local roads are important, but consistently we must shout louder and make the case for local roads. Net zero and everything else we want to achieve has an element of roads involved. We need to learn to shout more, not just as organisations but also as individuals.”
Jon Munslow remarked: “In a way as an industry we are our own worst enemy. We talk about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. We must change the narrative and tell the story about what outcomes we’re achieving for society. If we look more at a future vision we’d see a different way of how to use money.”
Kealie Franklin from ARTSM said: “Whilst the word collaboration is banded about, it is still insular. We don’t tend to reach out collaboratively as a whole. It is important for all of industry to know what the parameters are. We’re aware of things that have not necessarily been discussed at a collaborative level. We must know what the benchmarks are going to be in five years and set our goals towards them. From time to time we all need to be in the same room listening to the same thing as we’ll then get a better collaborative view.”
Rupert Clubb said: “We cannot underestimate the importance of local connectivity. We’re at risk of not funding our existing assets enough. Maintenance is fundamental to running the local and strategic network.
Matthew Eglinton from the DfT added: “We are in a situation where efficiency and value for money is ever so important. Every single journey begins and ends on local highways.”
All the panellists agreed on the importance of making the case for local roads. Communication was also highlighted as being key to driving change.
Paula commented: “I don’t think collaboration and innovation are mutually exclusive. Collaboration is not a passive word. You have to work together to do things. You must work at it. Too many people think collaboration is passive, but it is really not.”
Mark Kemp: “There’s a job for us a group to work out how we work together to move things forward.”
Jon Munslow: “We need to know what the industry’s thoughts are on things. The more we can understand the more we can support what needs to be done.”
Matthew Eglinton: “We want to get an evidence base so we can make the case for more funding.”
Over in the Civils and Materials Theatre, LCRIG Chief Executive Martin Duffy is taking part in a panel session entitled Building resilience – best-practice supply chain management. He will be speaking alongside: David O’Neil, Supply Chain Director, National Highways; Andy Gutherson, Executive Director of Place, Lincolnshire County Council; David Kinsey, Head of Highways Asset Management, Grounds Maintenance and Arboriculture, Derby City Council.
Ian Large, Performance Manager Highways & Traffic, Blackpool Council and Chair of LCRIG’s Infrastructure Innovation Board will appear in the same theatre later on the same day to talk about ‘Harnessing innovation for sustainable roads of the future’. His fellow panellists include: Paula Gough, Strategic Account Director for National Highways, Costain; Alan Perry, Technical Director, Restek UK Ltd; Chrysoula Litina, Principal Research Engineer, National Highways.
The Local Council Roads Innovation Group can be found on Stand I3 at Highways UK.