President's Update

This blog page features updates from ADEPT's President, Anthony Payne.

Latest post

President update 2nd April - latest news from ADEPT

Hello! 

As the weather becomes decidedly more spring-like (with hopefully less rain?), I hope this finds you all looking forward to the longer days ahead and enjoying the lighter evenings.

The ADEPT Spring Conference and President Awards Dinner is quickly approaching! The conference offers members a fantastic opportunity to get together, celebrate our achievements and gear up for the challenges ahead. In a general election year where change is on the agenda, but no let-up in the significant pressures we face in sight, we will be returning to the theme of resilience in our places. If you haven’t already booked your place, then please consider doing so. You can find more information on the draft programme and book your place on the conference webpage. 

We’ll also be celebrating the many achievements across our places over the past year at the Annual President's Awards ceremony. There’s still a chance to enter the awards - the deadline is Friday 12th April! Full details on how to submit your entries is available on the ADEPT website. 

News 

Earlier this month, we provided a response to the Spring Statement, emphasising the urgent need for sustained investment in place-based services. We stressed that current budget allocations and investment strategies overlook the critical needs of local authorities, leaving essential services at risk and negatively impacting vulnerable communities in a disproportionate way.

We co-hosted another successful green finance training day with CIPFA, with inspiring case studies from Westminster Council and South Gloucestershire Council. Also, over 100 people attended the webinar on our recently published SEND Transport toolkit (here) including representatives from both place and children’s services.

Carolyn McKenzie, Hannah and I met with the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Philip Duffy, for a wide-ranging discussion about partnership working, waste reforms, water quality, surface water flooding and planning for good growth. And I am delighted that the Gen Z recruitment campaign pilot is finally underway, with Plymouth Council as one of the five participating councils, the others being South Gloucestershire, Oxford, Barnsley and Hounslow.

Publications

In March, we submitted our response to DfT Street Works Fines and Lane Rental Surplus Funds consultation. We responded to the consultation, which is looking at reforms to street works legislation covering surplus lane rental funds, fixed penalty notices and weekend overruns. We also responded to the WEEE reforms consultation which is considering proposals on reforming the producer responsibility system for waste electrical and electronic equipment. 

We are continuing with our equality, diversity and inclusion campaign, A Place for All, that we are running in partnership with Colas. Each of these stories is being published on ADEPT’s LinkedIn page and on ADEPT’s Workforce page. They offer genuine insights into the experience of each individual, exploring the challenges they’ve faced at work, how they overcame them and changed their workplaces for the better. Each story provides valuable lessons that can be applied to our own organisations - please take some time to read and share these personal stories.

Live Labs 2 Expo

Sold out! We have over 200 people registered to attend which is great news. The event is taking place in just a couple of weeks, on 17th April at Birmingham Conference and Exhibition Centre. It will bring the Live Labs 2 projects together with their commercial and academic partners – it’s a fantastic opportunity to meet the teams, partners, SMEs and academics involved in each trial. Find out more at the Live Labs 2 Expo website.

Blogs

This month’s Climate Change blog comes from David Dale, who gives a progress update on adaptation, focusing on government and local authority engagement, departmental initiatives and events.

We have an extra blog from ADEPT CEO Hannah Bartram, talking about the forthcoming Live Labs 2 Expo event. Hannah talks about the event in detail, discussing some of the key features and explains how it will be relevant to people outside of the highways sector. You can read the blog here.

We also have a project Live Labs 2 blog – this month the spotlight returns to the Devon project, where Beth Lewis, Devon County Council's Principal Engineer - Major Projects, tells us about some forward thinking tree relocation work. It’s a great story and has been picked up by lots of media outlets.

Events

Our next Lunch & Learn hosted by Virgin Media O2 is: ‘Location based video analytics – understanding and managing population behaviour using computer vision’ and will take place on Friday 26th April. The session will give an overview of how VM Virgin Media O2 combined connectivity and video analytics will help Transport for London better manage customer safety and reliability, alongside applications of the technology in other environments. It’s free for ADEPT members, you can register here. For anyone that missed the previous Lunch & Lunch on Using AI to optimise Transport Plan Delivery Plans, the slide deck is available here.

You can find out more about ADEPT’s latest news, publications and the work of our boards and groups on the website: www.adeptnet.org.uk. 

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More posts

  • President update: 14th October

    After much trailing in the media, the Prime Minister finally announced the 3 tier system for local lockdowns on Monday. I think it’s fair to say that these haven’t been received with wholehearted endorsement. Local authorities are facing inconsistencies in how these tiers are being applied across the country. There is some debate whether localised lockdowns are even working and re-emergence of conversations about the North-South divide in terms of economic impacts.

    Read more >

  • President update: 29th September

    As rising numbers of COVID-19 cases continue across the country and the difficult situation for many students dominates the news, we are also facing the prospect of greater national restrictions. Parliament is concerned over the lack of scrutiny of emergency powers and there are still issues with the track and trace app. For many of us, it might also feel like Groundhog Day, as we continue to wait to find out about Tranche 2 of Active Travel Funding. 

    Read more >

  • President update: 15th September

    The rising number of coronavirus cases and the R number increasing to between 1 and 1.2 are obviously concerning, particularly in the northern areas of England and the Midlands and have prompted the Government to introduce the new ‘rule of six’ guidance. The Prime Minister’s introduction of Covid Marshalls took many of us by surprise with more details due out this week. One of the most pressing issues for us of course, is how they will be funded.

    Read more >

  • President update: 1st September

    Managing the reopening of schools to all students has provided many challenges, not only for the Government and schools themselves, but also for place directors. We have been working out how we can ensure pupils can travel to and from schools safely using public transport, which has been a massive issue for ADEPT members, and most keenly felt by those outside more urban areas.

    Read more >

  • President update: 31st July

    The news has been concerning this week, with the reintroduction of some lockdown measures across areas in the north of England, as well as the requirement to quarantine for travellers returning from Spain. The measures serve to highlight that coming out of lockdown is not an easy process, and with increases in cases across Europe, a reminder of how connected we are with our friends.

    Read more >

  • President's Update

    Local government yet again finds itself facing an uncertain future with even less certain budgets. There has been much coverage of the Public Accounts Committee report which has outlined risks and issues with increasing commercial investments and borrowing across councils, and how Covid-19 has led to a shortfall in expected income.

    Read more >

  • President update: 8th July

    It was interesting to listen to the chancellor’s summer statement, which outlined some important new investment that will have an impact on clean and green growth. The investment into infrastructure, the £3bn green jobs plan and the £2bn Green Homes Grant, will all help to drive a green recovery. In particular, retrofitting homes is vital for communities and the wider built environment – it not only reduces carbon emissions, it also builds resilience to future climate change, reduces fuel poverty and improves health.

    Read more >

  • President update: 1st July

    The Prime Minister’s much trailed announcement of a New Deal wasn’t the once-in-a-generation, green and clean recovery many had hoped for. Some of the funding had been announced before, just with a speeding up of delivery timescales, but investment in broadband and cycleways is welcome. ADEPT would like to see more ambitious thinking from government.

    Read more >

  • President update: 24th June

    As the Government opens up the economy further and reduces the 2m rule to ‘1m plus’, local high streets begin to see a welcome influx of visitors becoming more confident in returning to town centres, and a slow shift into a more normal life.

    Read more >

  • President update: 17th June

    This week marks the beginning of a significant time for our high streets with many shops allowed to reopen, but with strict social distancing in place. We will be watching closely how the public reacts over the coming weeks to get an idea of how safe our communities feel about returning to the shops. It’s a major concern for all place directors who need to ensure their communities feel confident and that their local economies can restart. For retail businesses, it is also a critical point as they work out how they can continue to operate with a reduced footfall. 

    Read more >

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