David Tarrant will succeed David Hutchinson as Chairman of Rees Jeffreys Road Fund after the Trustee meeting on 5^th February 2019.  David has been a Trustee for ten years and Chairman since 2014.

During his time as Chairman, David has:

• overseen gradual but important changes in the Trustee membership in order to maintain the right mix of skills and experience;
• continued to promote the development of the profession by working with Universities to fund bursaries to post graduates in transport studies;
• encouraged a pro – active role for the Fund in commissioning research, including the landmark study into the Major Roads Network.

David Hutchinson commented “I am pleased to be able to hand over the reins to David Tarrant. The Fund continues to play an important role in supporting transport research and promoting professional development.  We have an excellent group of Trustees who I am sure will carry on the work for many years to come”.

David Tarrant has been a Trustee since 2014 and has a wealth of experience in the transport industry.  Having just retired from Mott MacDonald he can apply himself to his new role and will be supported by Ginny Clarke, who has agreed to take on the new role of Vice Chair.  As Vice Chair, Ginny will focus on overseeing the Fund’s own investments and succession planning.

David Tarrant remarked “I am honoured to follow David Hutchinson as Chairman of the Fund.  David has done a great job in ensuring that the Fund is widely known and respected; and supported projects that are relevant to the transport issues of today. The MRN study was one of David’s lasting achievements. There is further work that can be done to take that study forward which I intend to encourage in my time as Chairman.  The Fund is in good shape and I am really looking forward, with Ginny’s and fellow Trustees help, to taking on my new role.”

Details of the Awards made for 2018 have now been published and can be found on the projects page

A total of £273,349 (including £80,000 in graduate bursaries) was awarded to 13 organisations or individuals (plus eight bursaries to 5 Universities).

The Rees Jeffreys Trustees are looking for help in mapping over 70 Roadside Rests created by the Fund since the early 1950s.

The Fund’s Trust Deed has as one of the objects to “promote schemes for the provision of roadside parks and open spaces designed to enhance the beauty and attractiveness of the highways”.

As a result, from its early days the Fund supported schemes to create “Roadside Rests” in an era before Motorway Service Stations.  Over a period from 1950 to the early part of this century over 70 such schemes were completed.  Although the Trustees no longer see it as their role to encourage new schemes it does wish to maintain the tradition and history of these facilities.

The Fund’s records of these schemes however are quite limited.  The Trustees are keen to update its records and to add, for example, GPS locations and photographs where possible.  For this we need the public’s help.

The current list of sites is attached here RJRF Roadside Rests.

So if you are aware of a Rees Jeffreys Roadside Rest near you please contact the Secretary, Brian Murrell on brianmurrell@reesjeffreys.co.uk with any information that might add to our records. That might include:

• Confirming there is still a Roadside Rest at the location given;
• Confirming that the description of the location given is accurate;
• Sending the GPS co-ordinates or postcode for the correct location;
• Describing its current condition;
• Identifying if there is a Rees Jeffreys plague visible;
• Sending photographs of the Roadside Rest and the views from it.

Secretary

October 2018

Rees Jeffreys is pleased to report the award of eight bursaries to students taking a full time Masters in transport in 2018/9.    Chairman David Hutchinson commented “This year we extended our invitation to twelve Universities. It is a pleasure to report this resulted in an excellent group of candidates to choose from again this year.  I am confident this will make a real contribution to our aim of  enriching the supply of transport professionals in the UK”.  For more details visit the Bursaries page.

A greener approach to design and maintenance could transform the road network for the better, a new report sets out.  Roads and the Environment: Putting an innovative approach at the heart of RIS2, produced by Campaign for Better Transport with funding from the Rees Jeffreys Roads Fund, shows practical ways that highways managers can make roads better for the environment and for all road users.

By embracing best practice from around the world, it sets out a positive vision of how Highways England’s resources can be used to make the current road network safer, greener and more in keeping with its surroundings.

David Hutchinson, Chair of Trustees, Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, said: “We hope that this report will help to inspire a new generation of highway engineers to think beyond the engineering basics and through high quality design make our main roads better for all.”

The report highlights examples of best practice from around the world to develop a greener approach to the strategic road network and to improve the way it is designed and maintained.

The Fund’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2017 is now available here .  An annual return for 2017 to the Charity Commission has also been completed.

The Rees Jeffreys Road Fund is inviting extended abstracts on subjects that develop the strategic thinking about the English Road network in two key areas – User Experience and Governance. The brief “Call for Extended Abstracts Addressing the User Experience and Governance of Roads in England” can be found here.

Following publication of its report ‘A Major Road Network for England’ the Fund is keen to continue the development of thinking about the entire road network (in England) in order that improvements can be achieved in planning and delivery of a better road service for the future.

This is an open invitation to any individual or organisation with an interest in the transport sector to submit an extended abstract on either one or both of these topics. For those abstracts that the Trustees decide to pursue, author/s will be invited to produce a position paper within 3 months.  An award of £6,000 would be made, conditional upon the production of a document deemed of acceptable quality and style by the RJRF Trustees.

Abstracts must be submitted by Friday 9 February 2018 to the RJRF Secretary, Brian Murrell – brianmurrell@reesjeffreys.co.uk

In 2016 the Fund commissioned a study by Dr Geoffrey Dudley of the University of Oxford into The Governance of Transitions in Urban Mobility: The Case of Uber in London.   The final report and project outputs have now been published and can be found on our publications page here.

Details of the Awards made by the Trustees in 2017 can now be found  on the projects page.  

A total of 11 awards were made during the year at an overall cost of £240,000.

Rees Jeffreys is pleased to report the award of seven bursaries to students taking a full time Masters in transport in 2017/8.  For more details visit the Bursaries page.  Chairman David Hutchinson commented “I am delighted that again we had an excellent field of candidates from which to choose.  I expect the successful candidates to pursue a career in transport and enrich the supply of professionals in the UK”.