ICE President Peter Hansford has been busy visting ICE's UK regions, helping to promote ICE's regional work and boost member engagement.
One of the great strengths of the ICE is its Regional structure. In every part of the UK we have members meeting in Branches and City Clubs, supporting Member development, attending Regional events – lectures, training courses and workshops, visiting schools and universities and influencing politicians and officials within their Region. The Regions really are the back bone of the Institution.
Before Christmas I went to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Since February I’ve visited the North West, the South West, ICE London, Yorkshire & Humber, the North East and ICE Wales Cymru. I’ll be visiting the remaining four Regions over the next couple of months.
Everywhere I’ve visited I’ve seen the enthusiam and energy of our volunteers across the UK. And I’ve experienced first-hand the dedication of our Regional Directors and Regional Support Teams. It’s through the Regions that ICE delivers value, to its members and to society.
One of the things that I’m really enjoying this year is working with my President’s Apprentices. I’m getting to know them individually and carrying out some mentoring. As well as shadowing me for a typical day at One Great George Street, each Apprentice is joining me for a Regional Visit. This is an excellent way of allowing them to experience our Institution, both at the centre and in the Regions. Between them, they’re building up a very good picture of the way we work. It’s really useful for me to see the ICE through younger eyes. I find it very useful to hear their insightful observations afterwards.
Meanwhile, we continue to make progress on our big national initiatives, all aimed at Delivering Value. The Implementation Plan of the Infrastructure UK Cost Review report was published on 31 March. We are taking this forward with three working groups, each headed by a champion:
- • Client processes and procurement – led by Simon Kirby of Network Rail
- • Infrastructure data – led by Professor Brian Collins
- • Industry supply-side efficiencies – led by Steve Fox of BAM Nuttall.
This is an important initiative for our industry and I’m delighted that ICE is continuing to play a leading role in this work.
The Low Carbon Routemap to 2050 is progessing under the leadership of Tim Chapman of Arup. We’ll see more of that in the coming months.
And the Create Sport Challenge initiative is at the Regional finals stage – more about that in future blogs.