2008

Thursday 1st May, Climate Change Briefing, RIBA, London

I attended this breakfast workshop organised by RIBA with representatives from all the major institutions. There was a dazzling introductory talk by Professor Sir Brian Hoskins of the IPCC; the workshop was chaired by Sunand Prasad, the president of RIBA. Whilst there was a focus on reducing the carbon emissions of buildings, there was a general acknowledgement with my point that buildings will not be truly carbon-efficient unless they are located so that they are accessible by low-carbon modes of transport to essential services (employment opportunities, shopping, health, education and leisure).

There are certainly opportunities for us to work with other professional institutions to develop low-carbon solutions.

Wednesday 30th April, Council Meeting, London

A well-attended Council meeting reviewed progress during the past 3 months and acknowledged the strong financial situation reported by David Ringrow, Director for Finance and Administration. The meeting was pleased with the report on the premises move and spent time agreeing, with minor modifications, the Corporate 5-year Plan, which had been put together by Mary and Brian Murrell and reflects the many comments made by both individual members and branch committees.

Frank Montgomery then made a short presentation on the Business Plan for the Education Board and received useful feedback from Council members. There was a general view that, when staff resources permit, we should consider extending the qualifications that we offer to include specialist qualifications, for example for Highway Maintenance, based on our existing standards for CEng and TPP.

Sue Stevens reported on the progress with TPP, the Transport Planning Professional qualification. Good progress has been made and the first 30 candidates will be interviewed in June.

Tuesday 29th April Meeting with CSS, London

David Tarrant, Mary and I had a very friendly meeting with CSS represented by Richard Wills, George Batten, Brian Smith and Alison Quant. We identified several opportunities for working constructively together including closer working between CSS committees and IHT boards. These include collaboration over getting our messages across to Government and working together on common issues such as climate change and transport and the funding and procurement of highway maintenance services.

Friday 25th April, Northwestern Branch Dinner, Haydock Park Thistle Hotel

My wife, Liz, and I travelled up to Haydock Park, in my case via my consultancy’s office in central Manchester. The hotel is close to race track and well endowed with racing memorabilia.

It was a very friendly dinner, partly because the tables were close together as an extra 10 people had turned up unexpectedly! Mary Lewis was also able to attend this dinner which was graced by several past presidents. And, enterprisingly, the Branch had hosted three Awards for:

- Transportation Project of the Year, won by Eaves Green Link Road, Chorley - Birse Civils
for Lancashire County Council,
- Sustainability Project of the Year won by Quinn Glass Ltd Travel Plan and
- Safety Project of the Year won by the “Missing Matthew” DVD provided by Lancashire Raod Safety Partnership.

Barry Heaps, the Branch Chair and I both delivered speeches sandwiched between two speeches by entertainers (Duncan McKenzie, the ex footballer and Martin Gold from TV). We were all enjoying ourselves so much we hardly noticed that Martin’s speech didn’t start until after midnight, giving him the opportunity to quip that he had been booked for the wrong day.

Wednesday 23rd April, Mary Lewis

I met with Mary Lewis to review progress and plan the next Council meeting. We are progressing with activities on many fronts, including an update of our IT system through letting a long-term contract to specialist providers. It was good news to learn that we have successfully recruited staff to enable us to progress with managing conferences and events and promoting and managing our increasing set of qualifications.

Thursday 17th April West Midlands Branch AGM and Dinner, St Johns Hotel, Solihull

We started with the Branch AGM at which Steve Rowsell was elected chair, and Steve Pate as secretary. Then we moved into the Dinner, which was a splendid affair at which I was able to give John Carrington, a well-deserved Certificate of Merit for all his hard work for the Institution over many years. The Branch is clearly prospering and the dinner was well supported. Dave Parker, Supply Chain Manager from the Highways Agency, gave a very amusing after-dinner speech.

Wednesday 9th April Executive Board Meeting, London

Once again my timekeeping as Chair was less than ideal and the meeting, which started at 12am, dragged on until nearly 5pm. One of the key topics we discussed was the planned premises move from our 6 Endsleigh Street office to new offices in Westland Place near Old Street station in London. Our existing offices are not suitable for modern efficient office working with staff spread over four floors in a number of small rooms. Also it would cost us a fortune to make Endsleigh Street DDA compliant.

The newly-constructed offices provide about double the space and on only two floors. The ground floor will be used for our staff whilst the basement will provide space for a Member’s Room, equipped with Internet connections, and for six meeting rooms. This means that we will be able to hold our Board and Council meetings within the new premises and, by joining partitioned rooms together, we will have space for holding seminars for some 70 attendees.

The Executive Board agreed to the disposal of our Endsleigh Street offices on better terms than we had originally expected. The Board also agreed to purchase a 999-year lease on the Westland Place office. Our aim is to start fitting out the office shell in July and move into the new office by October. This is really exciting for all of us but does mean that this June’s AGM will become a wake for the old building as it should be the last time we hold a full Council meeting in Endsleigh Street. All IHT members are welcome to join us at the AGM.

Thursday 3rd April Republic of Ireland Annual General Meeting

I was invited to attend the Annual General Meeting organised by the Branch committee. John Fleming, the outgoing chair, provided an historical synopsis of the branch’s progress over the past 18 months. Highlights were a successful conference masterminded by Alan O’Brien and the saga of getting the branch registered and obtaining a bank account handled innovatively by Gerry O’Sullivan. It is often difficult to get members to attend AGMs but some 25 turned out to appoint the new committee and to listen to presentations by Toby Scott, Oliver Tierney, Jonathan James and myself.

The new committee is Alan O’Brien as chair, Gerry O’Sullivan as vice chair, Jonathan Daley as treasurer, Paul Lewis branch secretary and Ian Byrne as membership secretary. Mervyn Raisbeck remains as the branch representative on Council. Regional representatives for Ulster, Munster, Connaught and Leinster were also appointed. After some refreshments we then adjourned to receive some Irish hospitality at a restaurant in the historic vaults of the old Custom House.

Wednesday March 26th Transport Planning Qualification Partnership Management Group (PMG)

Mary Lewis, Richard Crossley, vice chair of our Education Board, and I met with the Transport Planning Society (TPS) represented by Bill Wyley, their chair and Martin Richards. This was the first full meeting of the Transport Planning Qualification’s Partnership Management Group which consists of two senior representatives from each organisation with Mary acting as Adviser.

Whilst we have not yet signed a formal agreement with the TPS, we are already seeing the fruits of co-operation with the qualification now launched and the first 30 candidates applications due to be reviewed in June. We agreed some outstanding details about the agreement and we now hope to sign this in the near future. The expectation is that, after we have signed the agreement, the PMG will meet on average about once a year to review an annual report on progress from the Professional Standards Committee, to appoint its chair and to discuss strategic and financial issues.

The body that will be responsible for the marketing and management of the qualification is the Professional Standards Committee which will meet regularly to review progress, The Committee consists of four representatives from each organisation; the IHT’s representatives are determined by the Education Board. We decided at the PMG meeting that a member of TPS, Keith Mitchell, who is also a member of IHT, is the chair of the Committee for the next 2 years. Sue Stevens, our Director of Education and Membership, remains responsible for the administration of the qualification.

Tuesday 18th March Meeting with ICE

John Smart, our Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Technical Affairs, and I met David Orr, President of ICE and Alan Stilwell, Chair of the ICE Transport Expert Panel. The atmosphere was warm and it is clear that there are several opportunities for IHT to work with ICE. One example is the intention, when appropriate, to prepare joint Briefing Notes on topics so that we can gain synergy in putting across our views to the politicians and the public.

Thursday 13th March Meeting with Past Presidents

Every year we hold a meeting with past presidents. The number attending varies considerably and this year the number was only 8, rather less than usual. Mary and I gave them an account of the Institution’s achievements over the past 12 months and we were pleased that all the past presidents acknowledged the improvements and progress made and were fully supportive of our plans for the future.

Wednesday 12th March – Greater London Branch Dinner

This was very much a coming-home dinner for me visiting my home branch. The branch has always struggled to attract a large audience with so many other IHT and non-IHT counter attractions during the year. Nevertheless the attendance was the best for many years with some 140 present. Full credit to the committee and particularly Michelle Wood for this achievement. It was held in the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall in a room with larger-than-life portraits of ancient politicians and warriors.

During the meal I had the pleasure of sitting next to Valerie Reed, Chair of the Women’s Transportation Society and also Managing Director, Group Services for TfL. Valerie and I signed an agreement of co-operation between IHT and the Women’s Transportation Society. It is important that we at IHT take every opportunity to encourage women into our profession. This is not only about women graduate entrants but also about recruiting women in mid life whose children are now at school and who are looking for an interesting and rewarding career.

Malcolm Buchanan spoke from his working experiences from GLC onwards to becoming Managing Director of Colin Buchanan and Partners. His family has a slightly jaundiced view of institutions as his grandfather was ejected from ICE! What an amazing range of experience Malcolm has had! I responded and then Andreas Markides, chair of the branch, finished the evening with some well-chosen and witty words.

Tuesday 11th March – “The Changing Face of Network Management” Conference

I flew back to London in the morning and chaired the afternoon session of this conference at the Royal College of Surgeon’s in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The session included presentations by two old colleagues; Professor Margaret Bell of Newcastle University and professor Mike McDonald of Southampton University as well as Paul Glover from Transport for London. The conference was well attended and identified emerging best practice in the field of network management.

Monday 10th March – Northern Ireland Dinner

On Monday, whilst Liz took a bus ride around the City and then spent time (and money) in the new Victoria Square shopping centre, I was being shown around the Westlink project site by Leo Martin the Project Director and a colleague of Edward Bill’s from Graham, the contractor responsible for the work and Roy Spiers of Roads Service. The project has many of the complexities of the North Circular Road improvement contracts with complex river and utility diversions and traffic management measures requiring a tight working site and extensive use of piling. It is indeed going very well and ahead of time. I don’t often get the opportunity to visit a real large-scale highway construction site so it was a joy to do so and brought back happy memories of my past periods working on construction sites. Graham hosted a lunch and I met Edward Bill’s father. This must be a record; both Edward’s father and his uncle have been past chairs of the branch. Can any branch beat that?

In the evening we attended the annual branch dinner at the Dunadry Hotel and sat down to a splendid meal along with about 250 others. Conor Murphy, the Minister for Regional Development, spoke first and gave everybody encouragement with news of an expanded budget for highway and transport investment. I responded and then after Edward had toasted the guests who included chairs from three other IHT branches as well as chairs of NI branches of sister institutions, Peter Johnston, the BBC NI Controller responded on behalf of the guests. Peter surprised us all by admitting that he had a master’s degree in engineering and spoke with warm words about our achievements.

Sunday 9th March – Northern Ireland

My wife, Liz, and I travelled over to Belfast City Airport on the Sunday afternoon and then took a taxi ride to Dunadry Hotel in County Antrim. The taxi driver was one of those individuals who was frighteningly determined to look over his shoulder at us whilst both driving and informing us about the facts of highways around Belfast such as “ the Westlink project is six months ahead of schedule”. In the evening the Chair of the branch, Edward Bill and his wife Urchie drove us to a lovely restaurant at Crawfordsburn just outside Bangor, where we were entertained by the Northern Ireland branch committee.

Friday 7th March - Northern Branch

I attended the Northern Branch annual dinner tucked away at Shap Wells Hotel close to the Lake District. I took a taxi from Penrith rail station to the hotel via the M6 motorway and then on a single track road, seemingly more used by sheep than traffic, and in a gale with horizontal rain. Full credit must go to the Branch and its members in that some 180 turned up for the dinner.
It was a very special occasion as we were commemorating the 50th year of the Branch and also celebrating the Women’s Engineering Society National annual Award made to the Branch’s Chairman, Jane Hunter. Unfortunately neither the Society’s representative nor the main speaker from Cumbria Constabulary could attend and so at the last minute Ian Robinson, CECA Regional Director (and an IHT member) kindly stepped in, spoke first and toasted the Institution. I handed the Award to Jane and then congratulated the Branch for its achievements and for the quality of the commemorative brochure that they have produced. Without the dedicated effort that so many members make in branches, such as Northern Branch, the Institution would not be as influential in raising standards and continually improving good practice.
The after-dinner speaker was Tom O’Connor who entertained us brilliantly with a string of jokes and reminiscences; I can certainly recommend him for other such occasions.

Thursday 6th March – TRL Academy

I attended the annual TRL Academy Symposium at Crowthorne. The attendees were mainly from the Department for Transport, Welsh Assembly, Highways Agency and research organisations. We were greeted by Neil Paulley, Director of the TRL Academy and by Sue Sharland, TRL Chief Executive.
We were greeted by Neil Paulley, Director of the TRL Academy and by Sue Sharland, TRL Chief Executive.
The Symposium was chaired by Professor Brian Collins, Chief Scientist at the Department for Transport, and featured four lectures by notable academics and TRL researchers as well as a posterboard competition highlighting the research work done by several universities with whom TRL collaborates. The competition was won by Napier.
There was a lecture by Professor Mike Short from O2 on telecommunications and transport and one by Dr David Chapman on smart transport infrastructure.
I was particularly taken by Professor Andrew Evans lecture on transport safety and Professor Andrew Parkes lecture on driver drowsiness and its impact on road casualties. It is important that we include researchers in the membership of the Institution and that we use the researched evidence that they provide both to inform our professional judgement and to present to the wider public when getting our messages across.

Wednesday 5th March – The Guardian

I met Dan Milmo, the Guardian newspaper’s transport correspondent. He was in tune with the issues that concern our profession and asked us to keep him informed of our views on a wide range of highways and transport topics.

Tuesday 4th March – Durham Conference

North Eastern Branch had organised a conference in Durham on the topic of Better Network Management focussing on the latest legislation in the Road and Street Works Act and the Traffic Management Act. The conference was well attended, about 100 people were there, and had an excellent set of speakers. Full credit to Dave Wafer, Chair of the branch, Roger Elphick and their branch colleagues in organising it. I chaired the start of the conference and introduced Patricia Hayes, the Department for Transport’s Director of Road Safety, Vehicle and Roads Infrastructure Standards.
Patricia spoke impressively on the subject and left the conference attendees with five questions to answer and the message that it was time for us “to sex up the way we do traffic management”.

Monday 3rd March – Launch of Transport Planning Qualification

I had announced the launch of the transport planning qualification at the annual lunch in December but for various reasons we hadn’t been able to hold a launch meeting until now. A key reason was that the name for the qualification announced last December had to be changed because of a clash with the US Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) qualification of a similar name.
Anyway, we had a very successful launch at the Royal Society building in London at an afternoon meeting attended by senior representatives from central and local government and from consultancies. I introduced the qualification, now named Transport Planning Professional with the post nominals of TPP, and explained that IHT had joined in partnership with the Transport Planning Society (TPS) to provide a qualification of similar status to Chartered Engineer and with a national recognition. Jim Fitzpatrick, Minister of State, had intended to be with us to provide an endorsement by the Department for Transport but wasn’t able to, attend and so David Humphreys, Chief Economist at the Department, spoke on his behalf. Sue Stevens, our Director of Education and Membership, Derek Palmer who works part-time with her and Martin Richards of TPS described the details of the qualification and how applications can be made.  Bill Wyley, Chair of TPS led a lively question and answer session followed by drinks and canapés.
I felt the launch went very well and that all who attended were leaving with enthusiasm for the qualification and encouragement to identify reviewers and mentors as well as applicants. Sue Stevens is now organising a series of meetings around the UK to introduce the qualification to a wider audience.

Thursday 28th February – Project Brunel

We are working with the Department for Transport, Transport for London and the Railway Engineers Association in Project Brunel which aims to improve resource and skill levels in the transport profession. I chaired an all-day conference, which explored through nine breakout groups; how we can attract and retain staff, ensure they are well trained and that the people resources available in the profession are used effectively.  The meeting, which was organised by Franklin and Andrews who are consultants to the project, is part of the process of reaching conclusions and drawing up an action plan.

Wednesday 27th February – Council and our Office Move

We held one of our regular Council meetings proceeded by meetings of five of our Boards. At Council we had some breakout groups exploring two questions:
- what are the priorities in raising the profile of the Institution and getting our messages across?
- what issues should the Network Information and Management Board be addressing?
Council members were given a progress report on the activities of the Executive Board, whose members are the Trustees of the Institution, and a report on last year’s financial results which were exceptionally good partly because of the large number of profitable seminars which were held. The profit will help us in meeting the costs of our office move.
The office move is a major issue for us. Our current building in Endsleigh Street does not provide efficient office space and it would be very expensive to make it fully DDA compliant. We have been fortunate in finding an office in a new building currently being constructed in the Old Street area of London between Kings Cross and the City. We plan to sell Endsleigh Street and purchase space in this new building. If all goes to plan we will have access to the completed building shell in June and will fit it our through a design and build contract. The plan is that our staff will move into the new building before Christmas.
Mary Lewis had organised a site visit during the morning before the afternoon Council meeting, and so the three Vice Presidents (David Tarrant, Chris Jackson and Geoff Allister) together with myself and Roger Elphick, our Treasurer, were able to appreciate what was on offer. We all came away feeling very positive both about the office space and about the local surrounding area.
The Institution’s Brian Murrell is leading a Premises Committee, formed from Institution staff, to manage the move and is employing external specialists to provide advice.

Saturday 23rd February – East Anglia Branch

My wife, Liz, and I drove back from a week’s holiday in Snowdonia via Norwich so that we could attend the East Anglian Branch’s annual dinner/dance event. This was a relaxed event well organised by Martin Doughty; we were welcomed by the Branch’s chair, Andrew Guttridge. The band had all of us active well past midnight and the atmosphere for the event was great. Well done East Anglia. It was good to catch up on some friends such as David and Becky Sprunt. David has served on Council for many years and Becky is a member of the Institution’s education and membership staff team.

Wednesday 13th February – Membership Board

I attended a meeting our Membership Board under the chairmanship of Alistair Haydock and was pleased to note how smoothly membership issues are handled and also how we have beaten in January the number of new applicants for membership; the record now stands at 90 in one month.

Tuesday 12th February – Norman Baker

John Smart and I met with Norman Baker, the transport spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats and exchanged views on a number of highways and transport issues.

Thursday 7th February – RTPI

I attended the RTPI annual Planning Awards dinner at the London Hilton Hotel as a guest of RTPI and had the opportunity to meet their new chair, Janet O’Neill.

Tuesday 5th February – Asset Management

I chaired the joint IHT and Engineering Group of the Geological Society conference organised by John Smart and Simon Hawkins from Endsleigh Street. This was the Annual Seminar on Infrastructure Asset Management Best Practice and was held in the Royal Spa Centre at Leamington Spa. There were contributions from David Patterson, Ramesh Sinhal and Tony Sangwine as well as from speakers from Arup, Atkins, Mouchel Parkman, British Waterways, Scott Wilson and Network Rail.

Thursday 24th January

I chaired the morning session of the IHT Midlands Branch Conference on “Green Dreams”. Nick Thom and Bachar Hakim, with the help of other members of the branch committee, had put together a wide-ranging set of speakers from construction, supply and client-side bodies covering highway design, construction and maintenance. The conference had a particular emphasis on green issues such as recycling materials, reducing construction waste, minimising carbon emissions in construction and maintenance work.
I was struck by the large numbers attending and their clear interest in the subject. It is vital that we focus on how we can achieve the “green dreams” of minimising carbon emissions in our work though I thought the International Road Federation’s dream of a carbon-neutral highway seems unlikely in my lifetime

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Wednesday 23rd January

We held our early-year Executive Board meeting with a good attendance; only Bert Bailie, Chair of the Transport Policy Board, was not able to attend for health reasons but had arranged for Sue Sharland the Board’s Vice Chair to attend in his place. We had a full agenda and I failed to keep within my target of 4 hours for the meeting by 45 minutes. This is not good for a meeting chair! But we had several successful outcomes to report to the next Council meeting in February.

 
Monday 21st January

Mary Lewis, Chris Jackson, Vice President, and I met with IHIE who wanted to discuss several issues over joint cooperation. The IHIE persons present were Judith Walker, Secretary, Sue Broadaway, President and Stephen Spender, Junior Vice President. We had a useful exchange of views and identified some ways that we can work together.

Friday 18th January

I met Andrew Forster, the Editor of Local Transport Today, to provide him with an interview for a future edition. The theme was Transport and Climate Change – the IHT view.

Wednesday 16th January

It was my turn to face the Parliamentary Committee. The IHT had provided written evidence on Freight issues and had then been invited to provide oral evidence to the Committee. Fortunately I was well briefed by Richard Turner, an IHT Council member and ex CEO of the Freight Transport Association. In fact, Gwyneth was very welcoming and thankful for our evidence.
I believe that there will be more opportunities for the IHT to put forward its views to the Transport Committee in the future.

Wednesday 9th January

Richard Wills the CSS President had invited me to the CSS dinner at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. This was a small event but full of well known characters from a good representation of local authorities and a good way of meeting old friends. Gwyneth Dunwoody, the Chair of the Parliamentary Transport Committee was the ain speaker and Richard Wills made an amusing speech in verse reflecting, amongst other matters, on Gwyneth’s fearsome reputation for dealing with unhelpful witnesses.
CSS is a key partner for IHT with objectives that complement our own. We will be working closely with them in the future and hope to continue to cooperate over seminars and good practice documents as well as over the development of the Professional Transport Planner qualification.

Monday 7th January

Mary Lewis, John Smart, David Tarrant and I were invited to meet the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State and DCLG, Iain Wright. We were well received by Iain and his team including Canda Smith, Deputy Director New Homes and Sustainable Development Directorate
We presented the purpose and work of the IHT and requested a representative from the DCLG sit on our Urban Design and Sustainable Transport Panels. DCLG agreed to this (Canda already does some work with the Urban Design Panel) and expressed interest in our offer to work with DCLG and of help in getting DCLG messages out the profession.
The Minister was particularly interested in progressing the Sustainable Housing Agenda.

2007

Tuesday 17th December

Christmas had nearly arrived and this was an opportunity to join with others for the annual Carol Concert organised by ICE and IMechE at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster (the Houses of Parliament church). I read a lesson and was impressed by the history that surrounds you in that church. And so the seasonal festivities begin; a happy new year to all of you reading this blog!

Friday 14th December

This is the biggest IHT event on the calendar – the annual lunch was attended by 1850 and held at the Grosvenor Hotel, Park Lane,  London. The details of the event have been recorded elsewhere on the IHT website so all I am going to write here is that it was hugely successful primarily thanks to the hard work  of Mary Lewis and her staff, particularly Simon Hawkins. Our principal guest this year was Professor Tony Ridley of Imperial College, London and he was joined by our guest speaker the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke. Tony provided an illuminating speech on the RAC Foundation’s latest report, entitled ‘Roads and Reality’ whilst Ken amused us all with reminiscences of his time as a junior minister touring the country opening new roads and assembling a collection of scissors.

I was rather nervous prior to the occasion about speaking to 1850 people but I shouldn’t have worried because the arrangements were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So did my wife and eldest daughter who were impressed by the splendour of the occasion. The IHT annual lunch has become established as a special occasion for members of our profession who are lucky enough to get tickets!

We used the Annual Lunch as an opportunity to launch the IHT Foundation, the IHT Highways Maintenance Position Statement and the joint IHT/TPS Transport Planning Qualification. Donations made at the Lunch to the Foundation exceeded all expectations and , allowing for Gift Aid, seem to be heading for £14,700. Some of the fund will go to local charitable projects proposed by IHT members.

Tuesday 11th December

This was an important conference organised in London by Arup, HSBC Climate Partnership and The Climate Group to focus attention on how we can achieve a low-carbon UK by 2050. Some 500 people attended. Jon Snow, the broadcaster, chaired the conference whilst Peter Head of Arup was one of the key organisers and spoke on the low-carbon vision.  Peter and Arup had kindly sponsored the Presidential Dinner and Conference.

We need to keep in touch with the wider climate change debate as we prepare our own IHT views on how we can face the challenges of climate change in the highways and transport sector.

Thursday 6th December

Mary Lewis and I attended the dinner for the incoming ICE President, David Orr, held at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. This was attended by some 900 and was a very successful event showcasing Northern Ireland’s culture. David spoke strongly on the engineering themes he considers important.  David is MIHT and is keen to foster contacts and joint-working with us.

The pre-dinner reception lasted more than an hour and was a good opportunity to meet up with many people who are members of both ICE and IHT.

Monday 3rd December

I attended the launch of the EuroRAP (European Road Safety Assessment Programme) star rating maps for UK inter-urban roads along with a large number of road safety specialists from several countries in Europe. More than 7000km of UK roads were surveyed in 2006-07 in trials jointly funded by the Highways Agency and the IAM Motoring Trust. The launch was attended by the Parliamentry Under-Secretary for State, Jim Fitzpatrick.

Subsequently I was asked to write a short article for Surveyor magazine on the Institution’s views on Eurorap and supporting its call for more Government funding for road safety.

Friday 30th November

I attended the North Wales Branch Dinner at Kinmel Manor Hotel at Abergele. This was a relaxed lounge-suit dinner with a very high attendance for such a small branch. Doug Nichol, the Secretary and all the committee had done very well to enthuse local professionals to attend. Ceri Evans, the Branch Chair spoke and I followed with guest speaker Tom Pepper providing the laughs. 

Thursday 29th November

I met with Mary Lewis and Sue Stevens to discuss our plans to promote the new Transport Planning Qualification; we all see this as a great opportunity to provide a qualification for the transport planners in our profession who do not have an engineering background.

Wednesday 28th November

We held a full-day Council meeting at RiBA’s offices and had a record attendance (90%) of Council members. The aim was to develop a 5-year strategic plan for the Institution and we set about this task by addressing different aspects of the Institution’s work in five workshop groups. This was a great opportunity for Council members to shape the way the Institution should develop. The five aspects were “Developing Policy and Practice”, “Knowledge Exchange”, “Adding value to Membership”, “Raising the profile”, and “Professionalism and Qualifications”. The outcomes from the groups led us to a communal vision of where we want the IHT to be in 5 years time and a set of ideas on how to achieve that vision. A note of the outcomes was recorded by Brian Murrell, Head of Corporate Services, and this will be used to consult with Branches so that we can achieve broad agreement on the way forward. Over the next few months IHT officers will be preparing the 5 year Plan for approval by Council in the Spring; it is vitally important that we do focus on an agreed strategic vision and ensure that our short-term actions take us in the right direction.
We did find time in a break between sessions to listen to John Dawson, Managing Director of Eurorap, describing the work undertaken by Eurorap to assess inter-urban road safety.

Wednesday 21st November
In the evening I attended the 2007 Colas Presentation Award Final at the Centre for Life, in Newcastle. This was hosted by the North Eastern Branch with Dave Wafer chairing the event. The competition invites young professionals to make a presentation for 10 minutes on a transport-related subject of their choice and then answer questions. There was a good turnout of around 50 IHT members to ask the testing questions.
The standard of presentation from the six finalists was very high and the judges (IHT Treasurer Roger Elphick, Jon Masters of Barrett Byrd Associates and Arthur Thompson of Colas) found it hard to find a winner but eventually selected Louise French, from London Borough of Bromley and IHT South East Branch, who had given a presentation on School Travel Plans.
I congratulated the winner and the other five contestants and thanked Colas for sponsoring an event which encourages our younger members to develop their communication skills; these skills are essential in our profession.

Wednesday 21st November
I met Jim Claydon, President of the RTPI until end 2007.  RTPI has 21,000 members and 100 staff with 12 regions/nations (branches) in UK and Ireland.
We are both members of UDAL, the Urban Design Alliance, and we explored further opportunities of working together.  These might include a joint RTPI/IHT Development Planning Conference, joint responses to Government consultation documents and joint RTPI/IHT offers for research projects.
One of the interesting features of RTPI’s work is their University Partnership Agreement in which RTPI supports participating universities who agree to fulfil CPD requirements and engage with the profession, provide quality courses and prepare an annual report to RTPI. Most participating universities provide a 4-year undergraduate route to qualification and as an alternative route a 1-year Master’s degree. Another interesting feature is the RTPI Learning Partnership Agreement in which participating employers agree to support the profession, provide opportunities for CPD, and to pay all (annual and application) fees for members. In return employers are entitled to use the RTPI kite mark for Learning Partnerships; Jim said that this is useful to employers in recruitment.
Jim invited me to the RTPI Annual Parliamentary Reception on December 6th but I said I couldn’t attend; fortunately David Tarrant was able to go in my place.

Thursday 15th November
HRH Prince Michael of Kent, who is a Fellow of our Institution, expressed an interest in the IHT Award for Security in the Public Realm. TRL kindly agreed to arrange an IHT/CPNI (Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure) Security Day at TRL’s offices, Crowthorne. The day commenced with HRH being met by Sue Sharland, Chief Executive of TRL and Charles Rice, chair of the TRF (Transport Research Foundation) followed by presentations by Government Security Advisers from CPNI on countering vehicle-borne threats. I gave a short presentation on the IHT awards and pointing out how the Award for Security in the Public Realm had helped to increase awareness of the need for property owners as well as local authorities to protect the public from vehicle-borne terrorist threats.

Over lunch HRH was introduced to the award winner, the National Counter Terrorism Security Office and the two runners-up, ATG Access Ltd and West One Infrastructure Services. Afterwards there was a trial at the TRL test track of a security gate being hit by a truck at 50 mph.

Tuesday 13th November
With Daniel Isichei, our Head of Public Affairs, taking the lead, the IHT has been focusing on spreading our messages in the press. An early example of this has been a letter I wrote to the Local Transport Today (LTT) journal being published together with a headline front-page article picking up the themes that I had raised in my letter. I had not expected my letter to be front-page news. I do hope we can avoid confrontation whilst getting our views across; time and experience will tell how best we can achieve this.

Thursday 8th and Friday 9th November

I travelled up to York on the Thursday night and attended a relaxed meal with the Yorkshire and Humberside’s branch committee at the Park Inn hotel. At the meal, I gave Ray Guthrie the Institution’s Certificate of Merit; Ray has been a stalwart of the branch committee for nearly 25 years and has always made the effort to encourage young professional to get involved.  IHT relies on members like Ray who serve their branch with enthusiasm and dedication and it was a pleasure to meet him and to give him the Award.

I chaired the morning session of a successful conference organised by the branch on the theme “Congestion- What’s the Problem?” and held in the hotel on the Friday. The speakers were excellent and included Dave Gilson of Leeds City Council, Andrew Bainbridge of North Yorkshire County Council and Alec Briggs of the Highways Agency.

Tuesday 6th November
We have always had a close rapport with the Freight Transport Association (FTA) and the ex Chief Executive of FTA, Richard Turner, is a member of our Council. So it was a pleasure to attend their Annual Dinner at the Hilton Hotel.
Andrew Haines, President of FTA, started the evening with some robust comments about the role of the freight transport industry in the national economy and the issues facing the industry. The response by Jim Fitzpatrick, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State was appropriately congratulatory and understanding of those problems but unsurprisingly he did not offer any quick fixes. Alan Hansen was the after-dinner speaker and took us down an amusing football memory lane.

Monday 5th November

It is important to the success of the planned Professional Transport Planner qualification that we have the support of key players in our profession and so Mary Lewis, Sue Stevens and I met with Spencer Palmer and Chris Smith of the Department for Transport and Nick Fenton of the Highways Agency to discuss the qualification. We were very pleased to hear them tell us that the Department and the Agency both fully support what we are doing.

Friday 2nd November
My wife, Liz and I went up to Inverness to attend the North of Scotland Branch dinner at the Drumossie Hotel. This was a lovely occasion made special for us by both the hospitality and the special Highland features of the dinner. These included piping us into the dinner and then later piping in the haggis which was addressed by Sam MacNaughton, chair of the branch, and a traditional meal with plenty of fine whisky on the table.
Over 300 attended the dinner; this is a fine effort for a branch with fewer numbers. This just shows the support that is provided by local contractors and consultants for the event.
Neil MacInnes, the branch treasurer, was there and of course so was Alan Silver, branch secretary who had masterminded the event and is such a tower of strength in the Institution. Alan continues to serve now as IHT representative on the Joint Board of Moderators, which accredits university courses for the academic content of preparing for new professionals to become a Chartered Engineer.
Mike Stephens, the branch Junior Vice Chairman, gave an amusing and incisive introduction to all the guests who for the most part laughed at the jokes at their expense.
Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change spoke and I responded. I thanked him for finding the time to speak at the dinner on a Friday night and contrasted this to the difficulty to get a Minister from Westminster to speak at an event on a Friday night.
We had brought out 14 and 16 year olds with us and spent the next day climbing CairnGorm and the Sundays at Castle Urquhart and then Culloden.

Thursday 1st November
There was another meeting of the Working Group preparing for the introduction of the Professional Transport Planner qualification. This was attended by Claudia Currie, who chairs the Group, Bernie Richardson, Richard Allsop, Martin Richards (from TPS), Sue Stevens, Derek Palmer and myself. It was excellent to see the Group moving forward positively towards a launch at the end of the year following an extensive consultation exercise involving over 60 organisations.
This may well be the last meeting of the Working Group as, if we can finalise an agreement with TPS, the Group will be replaced by a Joint Co-ordinating Committee with more representation from TPS. Many thanks for all the hard work of the Working Group.

Wednesday 31st October

I had been invited to attend the Highways Agency’s Development Forum in Birmingham. Over 200 attended.

This was an opportunity for the HA to tell the development industry what they are doing and for the industry to feedback views. Archie Robertson introduced the day with a DVD from Rosie Winterton, Minister, who wasn't able to attend. Hillary Chipping chaired the day. Circular 2/2007, ITB (Influencing Travel Behaviour) and IDM (Integrated Demand Management) were presented and Morag Thomson from Marrons Solicitors gave her view on how the HA was changing the way it deals with development. A panel of HA staff plus Ian Jordan from DfT answered about 12 questions from the audience.

The Forum was judged a success with a lively exchange around the need to involve the development industry and the need to manage demand on motorways; several attendees inferring that road pricing must be considered. The need to consider road pricing as a future solution was accepted by Archie Robertson in his closing remarks.

Tuesday 30th October

Chaired a second conference in Church House, London on the IHT’s Guidance on Collision Prevention and Reduction at Church House in Westminster. The breakfast served up before we started was superb and the conference itself even better. Road safety is a major issue for us and, worryingly, our progress in reducing road casualties is slipping behind that of several other European countries.
This Guidance updates previous guidance prepared by IHT twenty years ago. Congratulations to the team that pulled the new Guidance together.

Wednesday 24th October

Mary Lewis and Daniel Isichei, IHT’s Head of Public Affairs, had a meeting with me to discuss the Institution’s Communications Plan. This Plan will be important for the Institution in setting out how we will represent the profession’s views more widely to the technical press and the media; this is what members have asked us to do. It will also be important in improving on our communication with members, branches and employers.
Communications is a matter that will be discussed further at the IHT’s Executive Board meetings.

Tuesday 16th October
Sue Stevens, our Director for Membership and Education, and I had been invited by the West Midlands branch to speak to about 40 students at Birmingham University. The purpose was to encourage them both to join our profession and also to join the IHT. We were welcomed by Harry Evdorides, convenor of the MSc course in Road Management and Engineering at the university. The event had been managed by the local branch and it was good to meet three members of the young professionals committee of the branch, Vincent Li, Claire Kennedy, Patricia Cahill and Emily Townsend as well as the branch chair Graeme Jones.

Monday 8th October and Tuesday 9th October
The annual Branch Conference was held at the Heriot Watt University just outside Edinburgh. We started with a pre-conference evening meal which served as an excellent way of getting representatives from 19 branches to mix, socialise and get to know one another. It was good to be able to welcome two representatives from the Republic of Ireland branch attending for the first time.
After the meal we had the award of three prizes. The Corporate Identity Award, given to the branch which had made the best use of the corporate identity guidelines during 2007, was awarded
to the South Eastern Branch. The Branch Recruitment Award, presented to the branch who had recruited the most members over the past year, was won by the West Midland Branch.  Lastly, the Branch Minisites Award, for the best branch mini website, was awarded to the Northern Ireland Branch.
The Conference on the Tuesday was masterminded by the Member Services Board and Helen Pace and Bernie Richardson had prepared an agenda which enabled everybody to get to know the Endsleigh Street staff, to reflect on the Institution’s objectives and to learn from others’ experiences. There were presentations from Jane Hunter and Ian Robinson of Northern Branch, Tracy Carter of South Western Branch, Geoff Davidson and Charles Ferrar of Yorkshire & Humberside Branch Member.
I asked everybody to think about how they can draw on what they had heard at the conference and to discuss with their branch committees how they could improve on their current activities.

Monday 8th October
The IHT had been invited by the Conservative party to present our views on there major topics. I went along with other industry representatives, to the party HQ in Millbank to meet Stephen Hammond, Shadow Minister for Transport, Richard Spring, party vice chair and Alan Lewis, the party’s business relations chairman. The three topics I chose were Road Safety, Climate Change and Road Pricing with Transport Infrastructure.
The party officials want to keep in touch with IHT; we shall have to wait to find out what effect our views have on their policies.

Friday 5th October
My wife, Liz and I travelled to the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate for the Yorkshire and Humberside branch’s annual dinner/dance. The Majestic is one of those historic Victorian hotels which boasts plenty of photos of royalty and celebrities visiting and a reputation for excellent service. And the gent’s loos in the basement are worth a visit if only for the amazing décor.
Avril Verity and the branch committee are to be congratulated on managing to retain their annual dinner/dance when so many other branches have been forced to switch to a dinner event. David Handson, the chair, spoke and then I responded. The dance room is an unusual shape and has difficult acoustics so I was advised to speak with the microphone under my chin so I felt a bit like a sports commentator. The guests included Mary Lewis, our chief executive, and her husband Nick and also Tripti Patel and her husband from Manchester. The dancing went on to the small hours and everybody looked as though they were having a good time.

Thursday 4th October
I attended the annual dinner of the Central and Southern Scotland branch at the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow. The dinner was held in a room which was vast and swallowed up the 360 guests with plenty of space left over for the dais where speeches were to be made. There were five! First Alison Irvine, the chair of the branch, welcomed us all and then there was a speech by Stewart Stevenson, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change. I was impressed by Stewart’s grasp of the subject, especially as he had only been appointed Minister recently, and also by his dedication to attend even though he was facing being driven 3 hours to his home in Banff. He was followed by Gordon Dewar, the Managing Director of Glasgow Airport, who told us the real story about the bomb incident at his airport. Then I spoke; this was quite a daunting task for one Englishman amongst so many Scots! And finally there was the comedian, Eric Davidson.
It was a pleasure to meet the other guests who included Gordon Pomphrey, chair of the ICE’s West of Scotland branch, with whom I reminisced about working on the construction of the Hunterston B nuclear power station some 40 years ago, and Malcolm Reed, chief executive of Transport Scotland.
It was also a pleasure with Alison to give Neil Johnstone the IHT’s Certificate of Merit award for his outstanding commitment to the branch over many years and the significant contribution he has made to IHT’s profile and image in Scotland with central and local government.

Friday 28th September
Thames and Chiltern Branch had recently suffered the disappointment of having to cancel their annual conference at Sonning so it was a particular pleasure to be able to attend their Dinner at the Bellhouse Hotel in Beaconsfield. We were greeted by David Gibby the branch chair and his wife Viv and by David Hunter the branch treasurer.

It was a special occasion as it was 50 years ago that the branch was formed albeit under its form title of South Midlands. A good time was had by all: the food was tasty, the wine flowed and Geoff Millar, ex Test cricketer and now an England selector, entertained us with highlights from his cricket experiences.   

Thursday 27th September
IHT has enjoyed a close relationship with the Institution of Lighting Engineers (ILE) for many years and so it was a pleasure to be invited to their annual Conference Dinner which this year was held in the Mansion House in Dublin. I sat next to Chris Hardy, the ILE’s Junior Vice President, who is the lighting engineer for Bournemouth Council. ILE have some 2000 members and are well supported judging by the 300+ people who attended the dinner.
I was also able to meet and talk with Paddy Craven, the current ILE President and Richard Frost their Chief Executive.

Wednesday 26th September
We had a meeting of the Transport Professional Qualifications (TPQ) Working Group chaired by Claudia Currie and attended by Sue Stevens, IHT’s Director of Education and Membership, Bernie Richardson, Richard Allsop, Derek Palmer, myself and Martin Richards of the Transport Planning Society. We received from Derek and Sue an initial summary of the results of our consultation exercise involving interviews of some 70 organisations. The consultation exercise, which will end in a week’s time, has already indicated overwhelming support from all segments of our profession for the introduction of the TPQ. We discussed alterations to the draft form of the Qualification based on information from the consultation responses received to date.

Thursday 20th September
The North East branch’s dinner was held at a country club just outside Durham. I have always had a warm welcome in Geordie land and this occasion was no exception. David Wafer, Chair of the Branch, hosted the dinner which had been organised by John Jeffrey, the Branch secretary for 27 years. Some record that! The main speaker was a Yorkshire bank manager who kept us in stitches for more than 30 minutes.

I was also impressed with the way the branch cooperates with other institutions and organisations; there were representatives from local branches of ICE, CECA, IAT, CILT and RTPI present.  This is a good example to all branches that working with complimentary professionals can help us all to meet the challenges we face.

Monday 17th to Wednesday 19th September
IHT provides administrative and organisational services to the British National Committee of The World Roads Association (WRA or PIARC). And so it felt to us to organise stands for the British contingent to the week-long WRA Congress in Paris. This was a grand affair held at the Palais de Congres and with the participation of around 100 countries. IHT staffed the Highways Agency stand and both Archie Robertson and Ginny Clarke were around to greet attendees.

There was a choice of six sets of lectures throughout the week after the Monday commencing plenary session attended by Government ministers on the theme of road pricing. One introductory lecture by Professor Hochmeyer frightened us all by telling us that recent surveys show that the Arctic icecap is receding faster than anyone had expected; his message was that transport professionals must respond to climate change now and not leave it until tomorrow. It wasn’t all hard work as we had several good meals out in a variety of quality restaurants selected by John Smart, our Deputy Chief Executive, and had our own IHT reception on the Wednesday evening attended by around 100 people. We were also invited to a reception on the Monday evening in the British ambassador’s residence at which both the Ambassador and Tom Harris, UK Roads Minister, spoke. The residence was most impressive with a vast dining room and a throne room; several IHT members (who will remain nameless) had their photo taken sitting on the throne.

Friday 14th September
This was the day of the Conference which was held at Imperial College, London. 160 attended to listen to a star-studded list of speakers addressing the issue:  “Can we have a Vibrant Economy and Green Transport?” The Conference was opened by Baroness Jo Valentine, Chief Executive of London First and the first set of speakers were Professor Stephen Glaister, Simon Webb, Director General of the DfT, and Stephen Joseph, Transport 2000. There was a lively Questions and Answer period with Simon using his diplomatic skills to thread a course between Stephen Glaister’s view that new and improved road infrastructure needed a significant increase in funding and Stephen Joseph’s view that funding in this area should be decreased.

The speakers that followed were Tony Sangwine (Highways Agency), David Brown (TfL), David Bull (Birmingham City Council), David Quarmby (Buchanan), Mick Roberts (MVA Consultancy) and David Virden (AccordMP). The general view fed back to me was that the Conference had been very successful in extending understanding of the issues around Transport, the Economy and the Environment and including a number of younger members of the profession.

There was a Partner’s tour of London at the same time as the Conference and my wife, Liz, told me that this was great fun and that the tour guide was superb. The success of the Conference and Dinner were very much down to the organising committee of Anne Welsh, Adele Jacques, Geoff Dadd, Michelle Wood and Tom Swift and its chair Andreas Markides and my thanks go to them for all their hard work.

Thursday 13th September
We had Board meetings followed by our first Council meeting of my tenure. This was an opportunity for me to invite new members of Council, such as Nasar Malik, Sue Sharland, Richard Turner and Mike Jones, to introduce themselves to existing members. I was also able to introduce Brian Murrell to Council. Brian is IHT’s new Head of Corporate Affairs and had started with IHT a few days previously. His is a new appointment and will give Mary Lewis support in the many company secretary and administration duties that she has and will enable her to respond to pressing matters such as our application to the Privy Council and our establishing a formal partnering agreement with TPS, the Transport Planning Society, for the introduction of a Transport Planning Qualification.

And then we went on to the Presidential Conference Dinner at the Merchant Taylor’s Hall on Threadneedle Street in the City of London. We had 260 people sitting down to a fine meal in the ancient Hall and were entertained first by Peter Hendy, Commissioner of Transport for London, followed by a short welcoming speech by myself and then  a video-enhanced  speech by Andreas Markides, the Chair of the Greater London Branch. Peter provided a captivating talk on the transport scene in London and demonstrated both how this provides the foundation for London’s economy and how the new environmental challenges of climate change are being met. Andreas had the audience laughing initially at video images of my cycling legs and then at some hilarious video clips, primarily at George Bush’s expense.

Wednesday 12th September
This has been a tough week for me and my family as my mother died on Monday 3rd. We held the funeral on this Wednesday. I shall miss her greatly and that sadness of loss will always be with me but the funeral itself was a time for all her relatives to join together to celebrate her long life; 93 years is a great achievement!

Sunday 9th and Monday 10th September
I arrived late Sunday afternoon at Dalmahoy Country Club, about 5 miles from Edinburgh Airport, in advance of the annual Locan Cup Inter-Branch Golf Competition. Having not played for 10 years, I sneaked out to the driving range to get in some practice prior to the traditional night-before dinner. This was a memorable occasion commencing with being piped into the dining room by two pipers and a traditional Scottish meal of haggis and tatties followed by salmon.

This was followed by an atmospheric performance by Patricia Roberts, singing Scottish and Welsh songs and accompanying herself on harp and then guitar. The whole evening and all the hosting arrangements had been ably prepared by Neil Johnstone and John Colgan of the Central and Southern Scotland Branch.

The golfing started early on Monday morning and fortunately (at least for me) I was partnered by a local golfer who knew his way around the course. We performed creditably but were outclassed by some very good golfers in the 16 branch teams of 8 golfers per team. Southern Branch won the ancient (and very valuable) Cup and promised to bring it back for next year’s competition. Credit goes to Derek Dudley, Secretary and Chris Bulman, Chair of the Locan Cup Committee who have made this event into a firm favourite on the IHT calendar.

Thursday 9th August
The Cutty Sark caught fire in late May just before the IHT Awards Dinner on 7th June, held a stone’s throw away at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. As Mary Lewis put it  ‘it seemed appropriate at an event celebrating cutting edge developments in transport infrastructure of the 21st century, to help rescue a ship that was also cutting edge modern technology in its day’. £1800 was collected at the Awards Dinner to go towards the work required to repair the vessel and to improve facilities for visitors to view it.

I had the pleasant duty of visiting the Cutty Sark Trust with Amy Napthine from IHT and handing over our cheque for £1800 to Fran Turner of the Trust. Fran explained the derivation of the name Cutty Sark as coming from Rabbie Burns Tam O’Shanter  and his visit to the witches , one of whom had was wearing a white shift, a “cutty sark” as he put it. Unfortunately we were not allowed to view the restoration work due to concerns about lead paint poisoning.

Tuesday/Wednesday  July 17th/18th
Chairing the last of the six “Manual for Streets” Conferences organised by IHT. The Conference was held at Bolton Wanderers Reebok Stadium and we stayed overnight at the hotel in the stadium complex. I was intrigued by but avoided “Aberdeen Angus Shepherd’s Pie” which was on the menu.
The six Conferences have been very successful attracting sell-out audiences. The document, commissioned by DfT, takes us all into a new way of viewing how streets should be designed with an emphasis on their role as “places” which can be potentially enjoyed by residents and visitors in addition to their role in providing for movement, for utilities and for deliveries. Congratulations are due to the IHT conference organiser, Simon Hawkins, and to the team that developed the Manual and who spoke at all the conferences, particularly Stuart Reid, TRL, Alan Young, WSP and Phil Jones.

Thursday July 12th

This was an opportunity for me to meet IHT Endsleigh Street staff at one of their staff meetings. I was impressed by their enthusiasm and am looking forward to working closely with them during my year. As President I can provide some input into achieving the objectives we have set ourselves but the hard graft of delivering services to members is down to IHT staff who do a great job with limited resources and in “offices” that are more appropriate to the Victorian era.
After the staff meeting I spend several hours with Mary Lewis planning for the coming year. My enthusiasm for moving the Institution forward in achieving its objectives has to be tempered by the time and resources available!

Tuesday July 10th

Chairing yet another Conference. This was the launch of the IHT’s Guidance on Collision Prevention at Church House in Westminster. The hall was absolutely packed and John Smart told me that several potential attendees could not be accommodated. This guidance updates previous guidance prepared by IHT twenty years ago. Congratulations to the team that pulled the new guidance together.

Thursday July 5th

Another Conference. This time for “Manual for Streets” organised efficiently by IHT staff after a short period of panic whilst couriered materials sent to the wrong hall at the University of Warwick were recovered.  The Conference hall was full and I chaired the morning session.

Tuesday/Wednesday July 3rd/4th
I travelled up to Cambridge on the Tuesday night and spent a happy evening meal in Churchill College with members of the East Midlands Branch committee and the speakers for the following days Branch Conference. The meal was easily remembered not only for the good food but also because I left my glasses behind and became a visionless President until Kate Carpenter recovered them. I hope this is not a bad omen.

The Conference was well attended and I gave an introductory presentation on “Climate Change and Transport”  which is a theme which will be important for us all for many years to come.

Tuesday 26 June

The day I was installed as President. First Alistair Haydock slipped the impressive IHT President’s formal gold chain over my head and wished me well (I wasn’t trusted with the chain for long and had to give it back immediately afterwards to Mary Lewis!). I thanked Alistair for all his impressive achievements during his year and the way in which he had made himself accessible to all. I then told the AGM that I felt very humble in being honoured with your trust. I shall strive during my year to build on the sound foundation that we have, to make the Institution even more relevant to its members and to move forward the agenda that Council has agreed.  I will represent the Institution when required and make myself available to listen to your views.

Since the 26th many have written wishing me well in this year’s journey and I thank them all for their kind words.