Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration

It was an excellent event, with a wide range of speakers and attendees from across industry, government, and academia. In essence, anyone who is involved in the business of digging up roads. Highlights included a plenary from Kevin Hamilton, the Scottish Road Works Commissioner, and a keynote address from Clive Bairsto, the Chief Executive of Street Works UK, promoting their latest report Digging Down to Level Up.

We had interesting discussions with senior personnel from Central Government to Telecom Providers, from Highways Agencies to Utility Contractors and one common theme across the board was the desire – the need – for collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.

At LSBUD we have long been strong advocates of this approach as shown by our Guiding Principles below:

In terms of collaboration, we have often written about LSBUD’s “Safety in the Herd” effect which our Members and Users benefit from when more of each take part in the service.  The evidence is clear and well established and helps us make the UK a safer place to dig.

We will collaborate with anyone who wants to help achieve that purpose; in the last three months alone, in addition to the ongoing support of USAG and the Linewatch forum, we have supported another four initiatives, providing support to CECA, ENA and two other groups that we will be sharing more news from in the coming months.

To be true to our purpose, we will even collaborate where there may be elements of commercial competition.

We have been involved in Advisory Groups and contributed constructively to public consultation for major government initiatives. We believe that with the UK Government committed to Open Government partnerships and sharing protocols, it is key that any project funded by the taxpayer contains elements that are freely available for the private sector to build upon – a “Golden Thread” to link systems and data for the general good.

As James Harris, the Founder and CEO of one.network noted in his talk:

“Government initiatives should not be land grabs and must leave space for other operators and competition”.

Finally, we have two advisory boards made up of and led by our Members and key User contacts: one for long term Strategic purposes and one for immediate Operational needs. These boards meet regularly throughout the year and around the country to help guide our direction of travel and fully reflect the needs of our Members in a fast-paced industry.

There will always be some barriers to a completely open collaborative approach; some commercial, some political and some logistical but it is incumbent on all of us working in the industry to provide our knowledge, experience, and expertise to ensure that workers remain safe, assets are protected and disruption to communities are minimised. 

Even though it may not always be easy, working together is the only way we can achieve safe digging for all.

Rick Crowhurst
Government Business Development Manager