Latest news & events

This is my first blog as new ADEPT President, so for people who don’t know me, I’m Mark Kemp, Executive Director of Environment and Transport at Hertfordshire County Council.

Before I begin the latest ADEPT news, I just want to say thank you to our new Immediate Past President, Paula Hewitt for all the work, good humour and resourcefulness she brought to her Presidency. Paula will be staying on as part of the Leadership Team, so I look forward to her continued input and support.

We held the ADEPT Spring Conference and Annual Dinner last week, which were both lively events and it was great to see so many of you and meet new people. 

We launched our new partnership with EY at the conference. ADEPT and EY are offering members access to EY’s Net Zero Estates Tool at a specially discounted rate. It’s designed to help local authorities decarbonise their operational and commercial estates, which are amongst the biggest sources of Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Find out more here, read the FAQs or contact Hannah Bartram. The deadline for Expressions of Interest is 16^th June 2022.

Spring Conference is also when we hold our annual ADEPT President awards and I am always excited to see just how much fresh thinking, innovation and partnership goes into the projects that are put forward by ADEPT members. They really are amongst some of the best local authority programmes in the country, and often pose exciting challenges to our more traditional services. 

I want to congratulate our winners Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council for their driverless shuttlebus initiative, Milton Keynes Council for the development of the first demand responsive bus service in the UK, and Surrey County Council for their Heartlands Green Social Prescribing ‘Test and Learn’ Programme. Our award sponsors were Jacobs, Ringway and WSP. We were delighted to welcome Transport Minister, Baroness Vere, to present the awards. Find out more about the projects and our highly commended entrants here. 

The Spring Conference theme was Levelling up Locally, and I think our sessions really explored how local authorities are getting to grips with what levelling up means at the local level.  

Our first session, Levelling up, down or out? provoked some fascinating challenge and debate between panellists, Emran Mian, Director General, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities; Mayor Marvin Rees, Co-Chair of the LGA Inquiry Panel / Bristol City Council; and Dr Richard Benwell, Chief Executive, Wildlife & Countryside Link.

It was heartening to hear from Emran that that there is a plan to shift from central control to putting local plan-makers in charge, but as we all know, responsibility without resource is less of a challenge and more of an obstacle. Marvin made an interesting point on levelling up not just being a geographically defined approach, but how it needed to recognise the national patterns to deprivation faced by similar groups across the country – I think he was right to emphasise the need for a nuanced approach. And as Richard said, true levelling up and pride of place are undermined if you live with poor air and water quality and no close access to green space. His point about valuing the contribution of green infrastructure in the same way that emphasis is placed on the built environment is one I know we all recognise.

Kate Raworth’s doughnut economics - the subject of our second session - is reaching across the globe. As Kate explained the principle of human prosperity not putting pressure on our planetary home, she asked the question: should our focus be on thriving rather than growth and could doughnut economics offer this model through its four lenses? The panel, Peter Lefort from Exeter University; Councillor Martyn Alvey, Cornwall Council; Leonora Grcheva, from the Doughnut Economics Action Lab; Ilektra Kouloumpi from Circle Economy and Colas’ David Ogden, were all convinced.

We heard how Amsterdam is bringing in business, stakeholders and the community to co-create circular innovation and how Cornwall Council has been applying doughnut principles to the decision-making around creating the Cornwall spaceport. 

The final session, Delivering the government’s environmental ambitions, focused on planning policy, the Environment Act 2021 and engaging with our communities. The panellists were Professor Janice Morphet, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL; Ruth Chambers, Senior Fellow, Green Alliance; and Sarah Castell, Chief Executive, Involve. 

One of the most interesting messages coming from both Janice and Ruth addressed concerns that the post-Brexit approach to environmental regulations might not see the promised improvement in standards. They both drew reassurance from the UK’s international agreements and obligations and questioned whether we should be worrying before 2023, or a 2024 general election which might see a change in administration – advising not to be distracted by vagueness. This was echoed by Sarah who made that the point that key ways to manage living through a time of uncertainty for ourselves and our communities are to have clear objectives, engage early and build trust.

I hope everyone who was able to attend the conference found it as absorbing as I did!

Talking about the conference doesn’t leave room for much other news, but our regular climate change blog features an analysis of ADEPT’s Climate Change and Green Growth policy position which we have just published here. The accompanying press release is available here.

As Live Labs draws to a close, we are publishing the final blogs from each of our teams, who provide an overview of the highs and some of the lows of running a highways transformation programme during a pandemic! The latest blogs from Kent, Cumbria, Central Bedfordshire, Transport for West Midlands, Suffolk and Buckinghamshire are available here. We also hear from Beau Stanford-Francis, Director of Public Realm at London Borough of Newham, who talks about the second session of this year’s Excellence in Place Leadership programme which focused on ‘Data-Driven Decisions’. The session summary document is also available here.

Finally, we have also published ADEPT’s consultation responses to the Mobility as a service: code of practice consultation, the Nature Green Paper and the Designation of National Highways as a "Relevant Public Authority".

I promise my next blog won’t be as long! As ever you can find out more about ADEPT’s latest news, publications and the work of our boards and groups on the website: https://www.adeptnet.org.uk.