County Surveyors’ dinner: 15 Jan 09

Talk of surveyors and I generally think of theodolites, hi-viz jackets and hard hats. but the County Surveyors are something else. They’re the people who work in the local council and look after the roads and they’ve got a society which has an annual dinner at the RAC Club in Pall Mall no less. And this year I was invited.

Brian Smith runs Environment Services at Cambridgshire and is this year’s chair of the society and invited me to the dinner. It was rather splendid but since this is not a restaurant review I’ll spare you the details although the main course of duck was rather special.

Not only was I invited I also had a minder. No sooner was I announced (!) than I was taken firmly in hand by Sonja Davidson-Grant who has Brian’s job in Somerset (a 4-star county and Lib Dem run). We did our fair share of talking shop at a table comprising Sonja and myself, her counter part from Wiltshire, the chair of the chief executives association, the chief executive of the Highways Agency (see below) and Alex Plant from Cambridgeshire Horizons. I dined in awe.

There was an impressive array of guests including the chief executives of various govenrment agencies (I spoke with those from the Highways and the Environment Agencies), a little light networking. Star speaker was Chris Smith, former culture minister and now a lord and chair of the environment agency. Flushed with the success of my networking I continued schmoozing with the lord.

Chris’ speech was refreshing and he’s clearly a man with his own mind and not one to slavish follow the line of the labour government. Thursday was of course the day that the government announced the OK for another runway at Heathrow. Chris denounced it in no uncertain terms. he also emphasised the need for government at all levels to remain true to their climate change strategies despite the recession. The target cut of 80% in CO2 emissions by 2050 requires no let up in our efforts to get there. He also talked of the air travel problem. There is no carbon neutral way of powering an aeroplane but people are going to want to continue to fly in them. It’s therefore important that compensating savings are made elsewhere.

The Club itself is rather grand with an indoor swimming pool of some size. There was also a Ferrari Grand Prix car on display which provided an interesting counterpoint to Chris Smith’s speech.