President update 3rd August - latest news from ADEPT
With the summer holidays here, many of us will be pleased to be able to take some time out to recharge, so it’s a quieter update from me this month.
News and publications
Firstly, I’d like to welcome Kate Martin from Sheffield City Council and Chris Henning from Derbyshire County Council to the Leadership Team. They are the new Co-chairs of ADEPT’s Sustainable Growth Board. I’d like to thank our previous Chair, Ian Thompson for his work in the role. At our most recent LT meeting we also welcomed Richard Benwell from Wildlife and Countryside Link, who introduced the Nature 2030 campaign.
ADEPT has responded to Defra’s call for evidence on Near elimination of biodegradable waste to landfill which closed this month. We have asked the Government to consider the complexity for the sector as well as providing certainty for investors on any proposed changes. Read our response here.
As highlighted in my last update, the Blueprint Coalition held an open webinar, Where next for local climate action? on 12th July. It was a pleasure to represent ADEPT and the coalition alongside Wera Hobhouse MP, Cllr Richard Clewer, Miriam Turner and Dr Candice Howarth. With over 200 people online, the session was extremely well attended and the recording is available here. Our Past President, Nigel Riglar, and Andy Gutherson, Chair of the ADEPT Midlands Board and Chair of the LAAP have also attended the Net Zero Forum where we have been pushing the need for place and policy coherence.
Live Labs 2 update
I have a quick announcement from Live Labs 2. Arup has been awarded the five year contract to provide monitoring and evaluation services to 2028. This will provide a longer term view of the impacts of the programme and each project. For more information, read the press release here.
Events
Our Lunch & Learn sessions are taking a break for the summer. Booking is open for the next session on adopting a systems-based approach to achieving net zero hosted by Costain. This will be held on 22nd September.
Preparing, Delivering and Managing Resilient Road Networks is the theme for this year’s ADEPT National Traffic Managers Conference on 5th October. This year we are delighted to welcome our keynote speaker, Roads & Local Transport Minister Richard Holden MP. Presentations will also feature resilience in the face of climate change, EV charging infrastructure, active travel and our very own Live Labs 2 - Decarbonising Local Roads. Find out more and book your free place here.
Following the success of the first session, a reminder that our second Navigating Transition workshop, aimed at those beginning to think about a new stage in their career, will be held in Birmingham on Friday 13th October. More details here.
Blogs
June’s Lunch and Learn from Jacobs on natural capital and nature based solutions was one of the most well attended sessions we’ve ever run. For those that missed it, it’s the subject of this month’s Climate Change blog. Jacobs have also let us share the slides from the session which are full of information and resources. Find the slide deck and read the blog here.
This month’s Live Labs blog is the first introduction to one of our teams. Devon County Council’s A382 - Carbon Negative Project sits in the ‘Corridor and place-based decarbonisation’ theme. Beth Lewis, Devon’s Principal Engineer - Major Projects, talks about progress so far here.
As you know, ADEPT’s Autumn Conference is an extremely popular event. This year we will be in Nottingham on the 16th and 17th November 2023. We always aim to provide great value for money for our members and the Conference provides a unique opportunity for place directors and senior leaders to meet and debate with colleagues from across the country. Each year we attract top speakers – recent conferences have heard from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Lord Deben and Dieter Helm.
Book your place and find the draft programme 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.
In the meantime, I hope you manage to take a well-earned summer break.