John Lamb

Chair, Adaptation, Biodiversity and Climate Change Board, UK Roads Leadership Group

Ten years in the aviation sector saw John lead Highways & Transportation at Heathrow and Stansted. He responded to the collapse of the Heathrow Express rail construction and at Stansted lead key element of the Afghan Hijack and 747 Korean Air Freighter crash. Working across front line and strategic roles John innovative and customer focussed initiatives to sustainably manage impacts of aviation growth.

The last two decades John has led teams across County, Unitary, Mets and Boroughs. Born in Cumbria, but a having grown up in Sheffield, John has worked in all but one of the home counties surrounding London. Now living in the North West, John has worked at Trafford, Manchester and is currently supporting Oldham Council.

John is now parachuted into councils to swiftly support local communities across the entire placed based services of planning, highways, transportation and aaste management. As Chief Officer in Calderdale he witnessed first-hand the massive impact of the Boxing Day floods in 2015. Since then he has championed the need to better understand Resilience and Response across the Civil Resilience community. 

The sector challenge – which John is now driving forward – is to unfreeze our thinking from traditional approach to resilience and instead how we mobilise for incidents that will be 20% worse than the 2015 flooding or even as high as 30% in some areas across the UK.

My Speaker Sessions

Wednesday 27 November 2024

15:15

Ensuring Network Resilience in the Face of Unprecedented Conditions

15:15 - 15:35 Resilience and Preparedness
  • Presenting the results of the 2024 UK Hazard Survey, findings from the first ever survey of English and Scottish Councils will set out the challenge for policymakers, local leaders, and front line operational teams.
  • The facts will highlight the sheer scale of the challenge of an ageing asset and the urgent need for action.
15:40

Panel: What Keeps Local Authorities Awake at Night?

15:40 - 16:20
  • A discussion amongst local authorities on the challenges they face and the solutions being sought to address them. 
  • An opportunity for improved cross-sectoral understanding of complex issues beyond budget constraints.