A failure of the industry?

"IT'S A failure of the industry." "Councils struggle to do their existing jobs." "This is navel-gazing."

This small selection of quotes from the Future Highways North and Open Data, Cities and Transport conferences at Manchester last week from highways and transport professionals reads like a litany of disappointment and failure. The public and private sectors still struggle to work together. The public sector does not have the resources to respond to new opportunities and challenges. The industry, in focusing on how to work more efficiently, is in danger of forgetting about its customers, the road users.

The fact that the industry is discussing how to do a better job and improve services is in itself testament to its desire to change and should be applauded. However, is it the case that such discussion tends to be circular or results in dead-ends?

As any psychotherapist will tell you, the identification of problems is a necessary but not sufficient step towards resolving them. Many in the industry have done that, with new public-private partnerships where there is trust rather than a legalistic, combative approach. David Hutchinson, executive director of the Highways Term Maintenance Association, a keynote speaker at the Future Highways North conference, recalled how contracts used to be "like a battleground".

The fact that he spoke in general terms suggested that the failure referred to by one delegate that I quoted is not the norm. Clearly more flexible contracts that allow a free-thinking discussion over solutions instead of a command-and-control approach are not universal.

Equally, Graham Grant, Tyne & Wear Integrated Transport Authority transport planner, speaking at Open Data, Cities and Transport, while pointing to the barriers to resources being devoted to identifying, aggregating and disseminating data, is clearly up for this agenda. He is one of a growing number of transport professionals who can see the potential benefits of taking on this new task. So it is not all doom and gloom.

In short, a frank conversation, including the disappointments, is exactly what is needed. This must be swiftly followed, however, by action - and that is exactly what such events can and do trigger with the can-do professionals who attend.