Will Britain, President of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG), reflects on winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Highways Awards and his time spent in the industry.
Q. What does it mean to you to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award?
A. “I am extremely honoured and proud to have received this award, but I wouldn’t have received this without the assistance of many people in the highways sector who have collaborated with me along the way.”
Q. Why do you think you have won this award?
A. “I know that after my 43 years in local government I have seen many changes and challenges but as a public servant I always wanted to ensure that the public received the best service they could. It has probably been this factor that has steered me to develop some unique methods of simplifying complex data to deliver clear messages about the future of highways and enabled the local councils’ politicians and decision makers to understand the importance of their local roads when considering business cases and making tough decisions on how to invest public finances.
“The other factor could be the vast collaboration. I was encouraged and collaborated with the industry including the DfT, (which is highly important in these austere times to learn and share best practice) and have during my career met with over 100 local councils including their politicians and a vast number of companies to learn and share best practice. I know that I have some strong views regarding the industry around fairness, filling the skills gaps and building a strong network to enable the sharing of best practice from all parts of the sector to support the DfT and to evidence to their Ministers that the sector is working together, doing their best with the funding available.”
Q. How important is it to be recognised by industry peers?
A. “Peer reviews are probably one of the best ways to assess the validity, quality and often the originality of methods, filtering out any poor practice. Being recognised by Peers has been extremely important as it gave me the confidence that the methods I developed were recommended and used by many local councils.”
Q. From a personal point of view, what have been some of your biggest achievements in the industry?
A. “I worked closely with the elected members in several local councils to elevate the status of highways and empower them with the information needed to decide the future of the road network for the next generation. I helped them secure the correct levels of funding for the future of their local roads.
“Using my knowledge of pavement and asset management systems including asset valuation, life-cycle costing and depreciation techniques, I successfully developed a unique method of condition survey and associated data systems which has now been officially recognised nationally and used throughout the highways asset management industry and is now an accepted approach and is used by over 50% of local councils. I supported the DfT’s HMEP programme who then sign-posted this approach in many of their case studies and was given commendation for my approach from the DfT.
“This approach saw an award from the 2015 NHT Best Performance Award for Public Satisfaction and the 2013 CIHT Award for Highway’s Asset Management. I produced the RAMS Framework contract which is scalable, repeatable and transferable and has been made available nationally to any UK local council and with complete buy-in from over 50% of local councils that has subsequently led them to success in restoring their highways and national recognition, public confidence and good perception.
“The DfT has also made use of this framework, for example a national road condition survey of all the A, B and C roads, the Key Route Network and a national road marking survey to fully understand the condition, reporting on funding required to the Transport Secretary of State.
“Subsequent to this I produced Project Amber which allows some of the smallest SMEs within the industry to get to the market unlocking the procurement barrier which they sometimes face. This allows and encourages innovation to spread within the sector to support local roads.
“In 2013 I established and am now the President of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) which has grown to become one of the most significant organisations in the highways sector. I aligned LCRIG to work with the highways sector to support the Department for Transport to deliver innovation on a national level and our mission is to bring together the ‘highways community’ with a focus to facilitate the collaboration between councils, the supply chain, key organisations, industry associations, training and educational providers and the media. The collaborative approach enables the councils to maximise their opportunity to introduce and use new innovations available from the suppliers that add value and save money across the entire highway sector, increase efficiency and ensure road users have access to excellent highway services
“LCRIG is fully supported and endorsed by the Department for Transport, and in September 2019 I was awarded a DfT Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Highways Sector by the late great Steve Berry OBE. LCRIG is now self-sustainable and now has over 90 local council highway authorities as members and numerous association partner members e.g., ICE, CIHT, RSTA, IHE, HTMA. LCRIG is sponsored by a vast number of highway suppliers and companies and organises technical training days and conferences which are free of charge to councils. These events provide free continual professional development and connect and share the innovation throughout the sector. LCRIG has attracted interest from politicians, councils, universities and the supply-chain nationwide to become members. It is the national support network for highways innovation.”
Q. What have you been doing since retiring from Blackpool Council?
A. “I am thoroughly enjoying retirement. I enjoy having the head space which was often filled with problems about roads. Now my thoughts are about which roads to take me to places that I have never visited! I do enjoy my garden, relaxing and meeting with our friends. Oh, and there are of course extended holidays in Lake Garda.” 😊
Q. Will you continue to make the case for local roads?
A. “I am confident that LCRIG is well placed and have the perfect team to support local roads in the future. LCRIG consults regularly with the DfT to help shape national policy in relation to local roads.
The LCRIG management Board of Directors consists of leading figures across the UK including politicians and we have established LCRIG advocates across the UK using this national network to support and connect the council groups, associations, the supply chain to act as a ‘conduit’ for innovation. There is also a well-established strong link with academia to inspire students into the industry to fill the skills gap and shortage in the UK.”