2021
Strictly Highways has now concluded & was a great success
The live event has finished but you can still register now for free and visit the exhibition hall, fill up your swag bag and catch up with all the presentations, live debates and additional content in Strictly Extra.
Strictly Highways is well recognised for bringing together the whole highways community, including councils, the Department for Transport (DfT), academia, industry associations, the supply chain and the media and this year’s virtual event will do the same.
In addition to the two-day Strictly Highways Conference, a Strictly Networking event has been introduced which will take place over two weeks. Strictly Networking will offer Exhibitors and Sponsors the opportunity to hold virtual meetings and still being able to attend the two-day conference.
Following the two day event and for two weeks after, all presentations and recordings of panel debates and the awards ceremony will be available on demand, along with additional presentations and content from our members as part of Strictly Extra.
02:20pm - 02:35pm
Darren Capes Manager of the Transport Technology Forum (TTF) and ITS Policy Lead, Traffic and Technology Division, DfT at Transport Technology Forum (TTF) and Department for Transport (DfT) and LCRIG Board Member
Earlier this year 39 councils in England were awarded a share of £15 million additional funding to upgrade and repair traffic signals. This presentation will provide an update on where the money will be spent and how it is being allocated.
03:15pm - 04:15pm
Alec Peachey Content Director at Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG)
Delivered as part of Strictly Highways, the awards recognise companies and individuals who have gone the extra mile to deliver change in the sector.
The awards were established by Steve Berry OBE – the Department for Transport’s former head of highways maintenance, innovation and resilience – who sadly passed away earlier this year. Steve was a great supporter of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group and Strictly Highways and regularly attended and spoke at the annual event.
The four categories for this year’s awards are as follows:
- Technology innovator of the year (sponsored by KaarbonTech)
- Local transport technology hero (sponsored by Rennicks UK Ltd)
- Net zero innovation project of the year (sponsored by Hitex)
- Road user experience (sponsored by Colas Ltd)
12:20pm - 01:20pm
Andrew Hugill Director, Policy & Technical Affairs at Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT)
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
Unlocking transport infrastructure will be key as the UK aims to Build Back Better from the pandemic.
But what does this mean for local councils? How can they ensure that they bid in for this funding and make the most of the opportunity?
With the UK government committed to levelling up across the whole of the United Kingdom to ensure that no community is left behind, what does this mean in reality?
How will the government decentralise power and work more directly with local partners and communities to help them grow their economies?
To support these objectives, the UK government has launched three new investment programmes to support communities right across the country. All share common challenges and opportunities, which the UK government is determined to address in collaboration with local partners. These new investment programmes are:
The UK Community Renewal Fund
The Levelling Up Fund
The Community Ownership Fund
A panel debate which is being delivered as part of this year's Strictly Highways 2021 virtual event will look to address these questions with panellists discussing the following areas:
- The importance of transport infrastructure
- How councils sit at the heart of communities
- Why funding is key
- Creating processes to help communities 'level up'
- Net zero
09:45am - 10:45am
Edward Nelson Head of Local Delivery at Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV)
The number of local authorities that have declared a climate emergency continues to rise and councils continue to battle with a range of competing demands in this area.
Councils are taking action to reduce their own carbon emissions and working with partners and local communities to tackle the impact of climate change on their local area.
This is happening in a number of ways and with the launch of the Government's recent Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) a roadmap which will turn ideas into solutions has been set out.
With the COP26 climate change summit less than a month away (at the time of Strictly Highways taking place) it is important to understand how central Government ambition will be delivered at a local level and how actions taken now can have a lasting impact both up to and beyond the global United Nations event.
The opening session of this year's Strictly Highways event will look at a number of strategic priorities against which actions can be taken to help achieve this including:
- Accelerating modal shift to public and active transport
- Decarbonising road transport
- Decarbonising how we get our goods
- Making the UK a hub for green transport technology and innovation
- Developing place based solutions to emissions reductions
03:15pm - 04:15pm
Debbie Cavanagh UK Sales Manager at Safecote
A joined-up approach to achieving net zero
With a number of councils declaring climate emergencies and setting targets to reach net zero it is important that the personnel working within authorities are armed with the tools and expertise they need to help them reach these goals.
It is clear that with a third of all emissions from transport, decarbonising the sector will help lead the net-zero agenda across the world.
Highway departments have a key role to play, but they must consider the full picture when doing so. There is no single solution when it comes to combating climate change.
Councils will be factoring in a wide variety of challenges and possible solutions as they go on their journey to net zero. They must consider things such as production techniques and materials; implementation of Clean Air Zones; transition to electric vehicles; emissions-based parking permits; emissions-charging; active travel; route optimisation; etc.
But they need help to get there. Working together with the supply chain and understanding where the challenges lie is vital. Data and technology sits at the heart of this and can help highway officers to understand what they need to focus on and when.
Whether it is EV infrastructure and planning; roadside infrastructure; or route optimisation - having a supporting environment which assists councils on their journey to net zero is vital.
This session will cover the following topic areas:
- Providing an environment to support net zero initiatives
- How data can help on the journey to net zero
- What can the data be used for?
- Challenges to overcome
09:45am - 10:45am
Martin Duffy Chief Executive at Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG)
Delivering innovation at a national level is one of the biggest challenges facing the sector. Roads and assets currently managed by local authorities hold a wealth of valuable data. The health of these ‘assets’ can be driven into to allow for more efficient predictive maintenance strategies and to help direct future investment in the network.
But this must be done in partnership with the private sector. As an example, digitalisation can be used as a tool to delve into data. The information gained can then be used to help predict future network trends.
LCRIG aims to facilitate the development and implementation of innovation and technology within the highways sector.
This focused approach helps to assist the Department for Transport in giving assurance to Ministers that the sector is doing everything it can, with the funding available, to enable the ongoing development of innovation within the highways sector.
Having recently established an Infrastructure Innovation Board to seek out new products/materials that can be trialled on the highway network and to strengthen the link between suppliers and contractors, this panel session will provide an overview of some of the good work taking place across the sector and look at why innovation is so important when it comes to driving forward change.
With COP26 just around the corner, the discussion will also look at the wider environmetal benefits that can be brought about by implementing new innovative products and services.
Panellists will discuss the following areas:
- Turning data into decisions that can drive change
- Removing barriers to innovation
- Making innovation business as usual
- Encouraging innovation within councils and businesses
- The benefits of innovation
12:20pm - 01:20pm
Ian Anderson Director of Legal Services and Partnerships at Hull City Council
According to the Local Government Association (LGA), car parking is one of the most talked about issues in town centres and frequently cited by businesses as a cause of poor performance. Improvements need to focus on the whole journey into town, however, whilst recognising parking as a pinch-point for customers.
Councils face a range of challenges in this area, including a drop in revenues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, how parking can help support active travel, adopting on-street parking, etc.
Working across council departments can help ensure that parking provision is considered in a joined-up way that relates to other responsibilities including traffic management, strategic planning and economic development. This needs to take account of how car use is changing in towns and cities, for example, and how changes to parking facilities might impact on local authorities' journey towards net zero.
The sharing of data can play a key role in helping to support councils with the above objectives.
That is why the Alliance for Parking Data Standards (APDS) has been formed by the British Parking Association (BPA), the International Parking & Mobility Institute and the European Parking Association to develop, promote, manage and maintain a uniform global standard to allow organisations to share parking data across platforms worldwide.
Representatives from the British Parking Association and others will update Strictly Highways delegates on the progress of the standard, highlight a practical use case and provide an overview of the operational advice that’s available to councils. The panel will cover off the following topic areas:
- Operational challenges and how to overcome them
- Why data standards matter
- How to use data and adopt a common language
- Embedding data standards in procurement processes
- Integration between different parking entities
This virtual conference platform was developed by LCRIG. We will be making it available for members to use soon. If you are interested in hosting your own virtual event or would like to discuss using the platform alongside a physical event, please get in touch to discuss.