Mercia Branch hosts record-breaking awards
- Wednesday June 22, 2022
The Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE) Mercia Branch was delighted to welcome 222 guests to its Awards Evening, hosted at the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre in April. The evening was kindly supported by headline sponsor: Severnside Transportation Data Collection & Traffic Management and featured an inspiring after dinner speech from Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards.
The Mercia Branch has not been able to host its prestigious Awards Evening since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event recognises and celebrates the outstanding work of teams and individuals. However, this year’s celebrations shone a light on how organisations and individuals innovated and adapted to the changing, and challenging, circumstances caused by the pandemic.
Following networking and Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards and (below) Martin Polland a three-course meal, Martin Polland from the IHE presidential team provided a fantastic speech that poignantly summarised the challenges and opportunities that the pandemic has brought. This was followed by Eddie the Eagle, who gave an inspirational after dinner speech, providing a fantastic insight into his career and the challenges he faced in reaching the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
The Mercia Branch invited entries across seven categories. All entries were voluntarily reviewed and scored by an expert judging panel: Katharine Kelly, IHE junior vice president; Jim Golby from Applied Driving Techniques; and Steve Spender, CEO of the IHE. The Branch is very grateful to each judge for volunteering their time – a huge thank you again from all of Mercia.
Each of the awards categories were kindly sponsored by seven category sponsors (listed alongside our Winners and Highly Commended submissions opposite). The IHE also sponsored a Judge’s Merit Award, which was awarded to JCB and Stoke-on-Trent City Council for their innovative use of Pothole Pro.
The Mercia Branch would like to congratulate all of the worthy winners and highly commended entrants. The evening also raised money for the British Red Cross’ Ukraine Appeal and through raffle tickets and the generosity of everyone in the room the branch was able to donate £1,324. Thank you to everyone for their support.
Finally, the Mercia Branch Committee would like to thank all of the sponsors and the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) for their support in arranging its Awards Evening, as well as all the organisations who submitted entries and attended. Without you, this event would not be possible.
An official photographer was also present during the evening and all photographs can be found below.
