The County Surveyors' Society was established officially at a meeting of eleven county surveyors for

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on 19 November 1885. It was a

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for people working in

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

in highways departments in senior positions known as

county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

s. Over time most authorities stopped using the term 'county surveyor', but both the society and the magazine who support them, ''Surveyor'' magazine, opted to retain the title, although the society has since been subsumed (see reference to ADEPT below). The first meeting, and many other early meetings, were concerned with conditions of service of surveyors, mainly pay and hours of work. However, by 1890 the

had become increasingly involved with such matters as the rolling and watering of carriageways and repairs to footways. The

Development and Road Improvement Funds Act 1909 Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

created a Roads Board, which later became the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

with powers to give grants to highway authorities (local authorities) to construct and maintain roads. Many meetings of the society at that time were concerned with these grants, attempting to ensure an even spread of money around

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. A Society of County Surveyors for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

was formed in 1931, although this was an extension of the earlier Association of Road Surveyors of Scotland founded in 1884, a year earlier than its English counterpart. In June 1937 it was agreed that they should join with their English and Welsh counterparts. In 1937 a society delegation visited

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and subsequently set out proposals in 1938 for a national motorway network, having been impressed with the work carried out by the then

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Government. In 1955 with

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

that had hung over

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since the end of

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saw the end of the lean years of highway funding with the beginning of the motorway era, during which time the UK was transformed from a series of country lanes to having major 'A' routes and

motorways A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

, eventually including the M25. Following the publication of the Buchanan Report in 1964, county surveyors became increasingly involved in transportation studies, traffic management and road safety, in addition to the existing work on road maintenance and new road construction. The 1970s saw the start of the greatest road building programme since the days of the Turnpikes and also a major change in the structure of local authorities. The Society played a significant part in these changes and was accepted as a principal channel for initiatives and advice. The 1974 reorganisation of

added waste disposal to county surveyors' responsibilities. At the same time Surveyors of the Counties in Northern Ireland became part of the Department of the Environment, but in 1992 a

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

branch was formed which became part of the main society.

Campaign for Safe Road Design

In July 2008, now using the shorter name CSS, the society remained a partner in the Campaign for Safe Road Design which was calling on the UK government to make safe road design a national transport priority. Since then, CSS has been subsumed by ADEPT, the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport.

ADEPT

CSS changed its name to the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) as a result of expansions in the responsibilities of the local government officers who were its members. The term 'county surveyor' had by then fallen from use.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* http://www.adeptnet.org.uk/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20141017042509/http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com/ Transport in the United Kingdom 1885 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1885 Professional associations based in the United Kingdom