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DRIVING HOME THE MESSAGE!

Review of the one day conference held on 14 April 1999 at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton.

In April 1999, the Facilities Management TAG held a study day entitled 'DRIVING FORWARD A HEALTHY TRANSPORT PLAN'. The venue for the day was the new Reebok Stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

The day proved to be another success, persuading me to go straight home and do one of two things, (a) to sit down and start to pull together a healthy transport plan for my own hospital or (b) settle down on the settee and watch the FA Cup Semi-Final replay between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Needless to say, I chose the football. Not because I particularly like football (which incidentally I do - but I prefer to watch Newcastle United), but because I needed a brain break to try and digest all the information I had taken in during the course of this excellent day.

As a manager responsible for traffic management on a large hospital site, I was encouraged to learn that none of the speakers perceive our job to be an easy one! I certainly felt more confident that I was at least on the right road in our approach to the publication of a Healthy Transport Plan.

The study was chaired by Mike Gallagher, Director of Facilities, and as usual Mike chaired the day with enthusiasm, good humour and encouraged enthusiastic participation by those in attendance.

The first presenter was John Walsh, who has been involved in the development
of the new Reebok Stadium. John's opening contribution was most interesting, giving the audience an insight into the planning and building of the Reebok Stadium, including the onerous task of ensuring that home and away supporters are able to access the ground using various types of transport, including public transport, coaches, rail and car.

It was interesting to make comparisons, particularly when one considers the siting of a new football stadium affords the opportunity of linking to various transport facilities at the design stage, whereas a hospital site has often been in place for many years and suffers from the problems of an inadequate infrastructure.

I was particularly interested in 'John Walsh the Bolton Wanderers football supporter' who admitted to only having missed three games (both home and away) in the past 25 years!

Our second speaker, Nigel Twin, regularly writes in the Transport 2000 magazine and is probably a familiar name to managers with responsibility for transport.

Nigel spoke mainly about the innovative work which has taken place to introduce and sustain a successful car sharing scheme. One of the points raised was the flexibility for staff to choose on a daily basis how they wish to travel to work. This encourages a'pick and mix' type arrangement, whereby staff pay on a daily basis and opt to either car share, use public transport, cycle, or walk.

Another good idea was a letter advising all new applicants of the various options of travelling to and from work. This demonstrates a pro-active approach,
something which I will be introducing in Blackpool.

It became clear through the presentation that the work being undertaken by Nigel is actually starting to pay dividends. In 1997, 170 staff had travel bus passes and there were between 30-40 car sharers. In 1998 this had risen to 280 staff with travel passes and 100 car sharers, and by 1999 some 420 staff have travel passes and 120 staff car share.

Nigel suggested that commitment must come from the top and that his Chairman and Chief Executive travel to work by public transport.

As you will appreciate this generated some murmurings from the audience. As yet I have not had the opportunity to put this suggestion to my Chairman!

The last speaker of the morning was Richard Thresh, Principal Planning Officer for Transport. Richard talked about local transport plans, but also took this one stage further and looked forward 20 years.

Richard was strategic and innovative in his thoughts for the future. He talked about the long-term horizons, and suggested that parking would be the big issue.

After lunch, Phil Green, the staff side secretary for Unison, gave his view on achieving staff commitment to a Healthy Transport plan. He talked about the need to communicate and to fully involve staff in any transport issues. 'We need to emphasise the benefits of a healthy transport plan, including the need for imposing charges, and how the income will be reinvested to improve security and/ or fund transport improvements. Don't rule out staff buses, but ensure that the working day is not (ie, remove break between ensure & that) unnecessarily lengthened due to poor transport systems'. From a personal point of view, I have found the staff side at Blackpool Victoria Hospital most receptive, particularly as they have been involved from the outset.

The final two speakers were David Curtis, Assistant Head of Strategic Planning & Transport for Sheffield City Council, and David Gregory, who is a Principal Consultant with the MDA of Manchester.

While some members of the audience may not have gone home with an abundance of new innovative ideas, I am in no doubt that they went home with renewed enthusiasm for introducing some hopefully simple yet sound proposals to improve their parking and transport problems.

I was encouraged by the knowledge that we all face similar problems and that it is essential we work together, rather than individually, to support the Government's initiative.

The venue was excellent. Whether you are a football fan or not, you could not have failed to be impressed with the new stadium facilities at Bolton.

If any of our readers would like to learn more, please contact any of the TAG members who will no doubt be more than happy to give you contact numbers and names of the relevant speakers.

All the delegates left the conference venue satisfied that the day had been worthwhile. Interesting to note that without exception we all got into our private motor vehicles and drove home!

Carol Molyneux, Assistant Director of Facilities, Hotel Services
Manager, Blackpool Victoria Hospital NHS Trust