Good News (Olympic Games, Wildlife Projects, Eden Project Dundee), Not So Good News (Crossrail, HS2), Construction Industry News, Government Projects, Politics and Projects, Billionaire Projects, the national flagship and the first Beaver kit in 600 years
REPORT
By Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
Those of you who have read my notes for more than a year will know that in UK there is period of each year that we know as the Silly Season. In this period, news stories are few and far between (and I hope no one is thinking this is reflected my dispatches at any time!) so the pages of the popular press are filled with trivia. Well, we are at the start of the Silly Season which, unlike many other countries who categorize it as the Christmas season, usually runs between mid-July and mid-September. This is the period when the Houses of Parliament are in recess, so the mainstream Press seem to think little of serious interest happens.
Actually, there is quite a lot going on, certainly at the start of the season as Members of Parliament clear their desks via various Committee Meetings and publish their reports which often cover projects and programmes of interest so this month we can look at the Government Major Project Portfolio, some rail programmes and developments in the house building sector. And just to show that the project world is different, we have plenty to talk about this month, starting with one of the greatest of all programmes, the Olympic Games.
GOOD NEWS
The Olympic Games finally got off to a subdued start in Tokyo, a year later than scheduled but the delay was hardly the fault of our program management colleagues in Japan – Covid has hit the Games, like much else. Actually, I don’t know how to classify the Olympics – for the Organizers, it will be a programme, for many contractors it might represent a portfolio of projects and for some, their part being more easily defined will see it as a project, albeit a very important one. (Image: Getty / Lintao Zhang)
Many stakeholders, notably the athletes, will see it as the project of their lives – but I wonder how many will treat it as a project manager would?
Wildlife Projects. The Wildlife Trusts unveil new nature recovery projects – restoring peatlands, saltmarsh, kelp forests, chalk grassland, wetlands and woods – to store carbon. They focus on employing nature-based solutions to increase carbon storage while restoring habitats on land and at sea. The projects are:
- Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust – creating habitat features to help temperature-sensitive butterflies
- Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire Wildlife Trusts – restoring fragmented wetlands, paving the way to bring back beavers
- Cumbria Wildlife Trust – peatland repair and sphagnum moss farming
- Derbyshire Wildlife Trust – woodland creation and restoration in the Derwent Valley
- Devon Wildlife Trust – creating a site to demonstrate nature-based solutions
- Essex Wildlife Trust – expanding saltmarsh restoration
- Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust – seagrass restoration in the Solent
- Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust – creating a nature recovery network
- Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust – natural flood management across a river catchment
- Somerset Wildlife Trust – survey work to enable lowland peatland restoration
- Sussex Wildlife Trust – working with local communities to restore a kelp forest
- Yorkshire Wildlife Trust – the restoration of the Great North Bog
The projects, which will help the UK achieve its ambition of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, are able to move forward thanks to almost £2 million in funding raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2021). UK Project Management Round Up, PM World Journal, Vol. X, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/pmwj108-Aug2021-Shepherd-UK-project-management-round-up-Report2.pdf
About the Author
Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. Past Chair, Vice President and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. Miles is Chair of the British Standards Institute’s Committee on Project, Programme and Portfolio Management and has been involved in the development of Uk’s BSI 6079 for more than 25 years. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
