Welcome to the 8 Questions, where we ask senior figures in the sector the questions every business leader and ambitious professional wants answered. In this edition, Steve Flaxton Strategic Transport Programme Coordinator at Plymouth City Council is asked what is needed to deliver successful infrastructure projects.
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Collaboration and trust. As cheesy as it sounds putting aside everyone’s employer’s organisation and working out what is right for the project is, in my opinion, essential to delivering a successful project.
With a project as complex as this there are always lessons to be had and many of which have already been taken through onto other projects such as the successful approach to Biodiversity Net Gain as well as some of the solutions to designing out risk at an early stage.
One of the biggest challenges we faced, which probably won’t surprise you to learn, was ensuring the project could continue during the initial phases of the Covid pandemic.All staff that could worked from home and we were swift to put in safeguards for those essential workers who could not. We set up twice daily check in meetings to deal with all issues from health and safety through to material and resource availability. The measures developed for this site were held up as exemplar and utilised on other sites to bring them back to work.
Forder Valley Link Road was quite unique as it was fundamentally integral to the designation of a new section of Local Nature Reserve and also helped to support a new community farm, which is owned by the Council – the project was intrinsically linked to enable this to come forward through land deals.
The project respected the sensitive environment and did much to add to it, including creating a network of off-road pathways linking directly to the farm at the heart of the park, which is developing to be a highly valued, environmental, social and educational asset for the people of Plymouth and a hub for community engagement. With over 14,500 trees planted for people to enjoy in the once inaccessible farmland, FVLR not only promotes walking, wheeling and cycling as the least carbon intensive ways to travel, but connects local communities and visitors to nature, improving health, happiness and well-being.
Crucial to the Council was ensuring the project left a lasting social and economic benefit to the community and value for money for project partners. Working with the local community and Building Plymouth, our joint bespoke social value plan delivered over £10 million of added social value through strategies such as 85% of labour sourced locally (Plymouth postcode), £18.5m invested with SMEs, creation of 13 new jobs, 235 volunteer hours, 540 student visits and 536 weeks of training and work experience.
Being pro-active and able to collaborate are essential to driving successful projects but if the last 3 years have taught us anything it is that you have to be adaptive to challenging and changing circumstances.
The project evolved in response to feedback from extensive public consultation and information events, as well as bespoke meetings with our nearest residents and engagement at various employer’s premises. Working closely with the Local Planning Authority and key stakeholders, such as Natural England and the Environment Agency, the scheme went through a number of changes before gaining planning permission in 2018. Support was also forthcoming from MPs, local political parties, Devon Chamber of Commerce, large local businesses and public transport providers.
Regular communications were established with the local community, key stakeholders and the travelling public and the scheme had a dedicated Communications Manager. We even organised for local emergency services to use our bridge for training during construction.
With the scheme recently opened fully we will now start our post scheme monitoring based on a 1-5 year monitoring programme. In terms of the works themselves we completed on time and on budget. Throughout the scheme we also carefully monitored the added value the scheme brought through social value and the benefits for local communities.
I think that the decision making at the earliest stages of project development have the ability to have some of the greatest opportunities to reduce carbon and enhance biodiversity and social value. Scheme design, material and subsequently supply chain canalso be greatly influenced by key decisions at the earliest point.
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