Firstly I 
should say how proud I am of the new innovation fund being launched this week, but I will say no more here as others will cover it in greater detail in this newsletter.
LCRIG has brought you webinars, roundtables and news to keep our members abreast in the industry. Now we want to bring another level of insight to our members, so we’re going to introduce what we’re calling the “stripped back conversation” series. This is a recorded series of conversations between individuals we know are passionate about solving and discussing some of the big policy issues facing our sector. It’s quite simple, no script, no agenda, a broad theme, and people we think are interesting and you should give some time listening to.
I intend to introduce our first in the series as I recently connected Paula Claytonsmith, one of our LCRIG board members, with Jason Sprague, who runs his own consultancy.
Paula has always been passionate about all things rural, but with her recent appointment as English-speaking secretary and UK representative for the PIARC Technical Committee on Accessibility in Rural Areas, it was a chance to speak with Jason to discuss the big challenges from many themes including roads, maintenance deprivation, climate change and funding challenges globally.
Having listened to Paula and Jason speak so passionately about these topics, I can honestly say this is one not to miss.
We intend to ‘air’ this event sometime in the next couple of weeks and we will communicate precise timings in due course.