Transport Planning Associates Prize awarded to Robert Regue Grino

We are pleased to announce that the first Transport Planning Associates prize at Loughborough University has been awarded to Robert Regue Grino. The prize was presented to Robert by Marcus Enoch, the program director of the MSc in Sustainable Transport and Travel Planning, during the departmental reception shortly after the graduation ceremony on December 20^th.

Robert, who is currently a PhD student at the University of California, was awarded the prize for his outstanding dissertation entitled, ‘An investigation of the feasibility of implementing a freight tram scheme in Barcelona’.

We would like to congratulate Robert and wish him the best for the future.

New food store opens in South Wales.....

We are very pleased to announce that on 6^th December 2010, Tesco opened its new ‘Extra’ format store in Risca, South Wales for the first time. This project represented one of the first commissions with Tesco for our Cardiff office when we were instructed in 2007 to provide initial feasibility advice before progressing through the submission of a planning application, and determination to the detailed design and supervision of the associated highway works.

The site lies to the east of the A467 and our work involved negotiations with the Welsh Assembly Government Trunk Road Agency and the development of enhanced linkage to Risca Town Centre via improvements to a pedestrian bridge over a local river. The development includes an on-site bus stop to aid public transport accessibility and included the detailed highway design and supervision of a new roundabout access junction on Pontymister Bridge.

Transport Planning Associates secures ISO 9001:2008 quality management accreditation

We are pleased to announce that we have successfully secured accreditation of our quality management systems in each of our regional offices.  That accreditation applies to all aspects of our business from initial development appraisals and feasibility advice, through planning application support to the detail design and specification of highway works.  This award marks the successful recognition of our quality management systems and represents a significant opportunity to broaden our exposure to public and private sector clients alike.

Phil Parker Elected a Fellow to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts

We are pleased to announce that Phil Parker has been elected a Fellow to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts. The Fellowship consists of entrepreneurs to scientists, community leaders to commercial innovators, artists and journalists to architects and engineers, and many more.

"Our work in Transport Planning and Highway Design can have a dramatic impact on the design of streets and public space. The many RSA initiatives such as Sustainable Citizenship and Connected Communities are intended to inspire people to contribute to their community life and take ownership of their public space. I am very interested to understand where I can engage with the RSA network to help provide positive community benefits resulting from our work but also to contribute experience where possible to help RSA projects" said Phil about his Fellowship.

We look forward to seeing what new ideas and innovations Phil will bring to the company and how his influence will affect the decisions that we make.

The Transport Planning Associates award at Loughborough University

Transport Planning Associates is sponsoring an award at Loughborough University for the best dissertation by a student studying on either the MSc 'Transport Policy and Business Management' or 'MSc Sustainable Transport and Travel Planning' course.  This is the first time we have sponsored this programme, with the award presented to the successful student by Bristol based director, David Knight during the Graduation ceremony on 20 December.  David is a member of the course advisory group and said “It is good for our company to be putting something back into the education of future professionals. The attractive prize of £500 is a good incentive for students to work hard and deliver important research which may be of benefit to those in our industry".  He added "we will also benefit in being able to review the projects and suggest pieces of research for future dissertations.”

We are also sponsoring the popular ‘Lunch and Lecture’ events at Loughborough University, which on 5  November will focus on ‘Roles and Perspectives of the Transport Policy Community at the UK Level’ and on 3  December entitled ‘Airport Planning’.