YOU’RE MY HERO

I was working on the Community Relations desk of the Home Office press office when – to mark the Queen’s ruby anniversary as monarch – Sunderland was granted city status. It was the first time a competition had been held to create a new city. Back then there was just the one winner for the whole of the country. Today places as far apart as Stanley in the Falkland Islands and Dunfermline north of the Forth are both honoured.

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But what’s in a name? Being a city doesn’t confer anything extra. There’s no more money. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have reached a certain size – take St David’s in Wales for example which, although it had its status reinstated in 1994, is still tiny. Contrary to popular belief it doesn’t even mean you have a cathedral – although most cities do.

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So, why bother going through all the hoops to put in a winning application? According to Preston – the winner in 2002 – it is about civic pride and how the accolade lifts people’s sights, hopes and standards. And I think this says a lot about how establishing a virtuous circle can have a positive impact on all aspects of our lives.

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Bill Bratton, a former police commissioner in New York, talked about how tackling little things could make big changes possible. His broken windows theory explains how the subway dealt with graffiti and petty vandalism- and the difference that made. Every time a train was damaged it was taken out of service and had to be repaired just as if it had faulty brakes or an engine that wouldn’t go. Over time the approach meant passengers came to expect the best of the service - and that expectation drove down crime while increasing usage by female passengers and users from black and Hispanic groups as they no longer felt threatened.

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Safety can be seen the same way. It is too often a tail-end Charlie when it comes to designing buildings. But, instead of lamenting our cultural over-emphasis on shallow good looks, I think it’s time to shout out about the beauty of safety. It needs us all to be positive because I worry we are, inadvertently, perpetuating an off-putting myth of misery by making safety seem more of a burden than a benefit. Safety is a good thing – and I’m proud to be part of making it better. So, let’s stand up for safety. It’s up to every one of us to promote its worth so clients come to demand it because they want it – not just because they have to tick the boxes.

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And those boxes can contain gifts. And, at APS we are always on the look-out for new things for you to unpack. We are about to kick off our summer webinar series which is going to be looking at infrastructure - check out wheat we have coming up at: www.aps.org.uk/events . And we are going to be trying out podcasting - something new for us. Look out for me and our public affairs expert, Devin Scobie, in conversation about lobbying and legislation.

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There is nothing sinister and sneaky about government affairs. But, like safety, it has a bit of a bad reputation. There is absolutely nothing wrong in bringing to the attention of our elected representatives things they need to know. OK, it would be immoral if we were buying our way in or slipping MPs a bung to raise our concerns. But opening doors so we get heard - rather than wasting our breath shouting on the outside - is a good thing.

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And safety is a good story. I see it as the first responder of the blue-light services by reducing risk from the outset. Safety saves time - when things are done right first time. Safety saves money - when costly retrofitting doesn’t have to happen. And, most importantly, safety saves lives – the lives of workers, the lives of those who live in and use the buildings we create and the lives of families who grieve for the people they have lost heedlessly and needlessly.

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You should all be proud of risk management. Because, if you have pride in your work, it will, each time I try, l be easier for me – and others like me - to get the world to value and demand everything you do.