DfT pledges to help asset management ‘novices’

12 March 2008

A senior Department for Transport adviser has hinted that at least part of the £15M asset management fund, which was announced towards the end of last year, would help those authorities which were furthest behind with their plans.

Speaking at the Surveyors’ Bridges 2008 conference this week, senior policy adviser, Edward Bunting, said the department had received a lot of inquiries since the management fund was announced (Surveyor, 24 January) and that authorities were ‘very keen to get their hands on it’.

Apparently, the details were still being worked out, but Bunting said: ‘We need to ensure that the money will be available where it is needed – those who are yet to reach the starting gate on asset management.’

However, he also offered hope to those authorities which had taken a proactive approach to collecting inventory data. He said: ‘At the same time, we need to ensure the authorities at the front of the pack don’t miss out, simply because they are ahead of the game.’

Bunting also made it clear that any authority which was selected to receive some of the money would be waiting for it for more than a year, as it would only be available in the 2009/2010 financial year ‘and no sooner’. Bunting also asked delegates to think of where the next generation of bridge inspectors and engineers were going to come from.

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DfT pledges to help asset management ‘novices’

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